


The Apple Fell Straight Down.

by BurningGobbo



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben is a big strong man, Ben knows what he's doing seriously stop laughing, Eventual Fluff, F/M, M/M, Multiple chapters, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rey and Ben argue, Rey is so done with Ben, Smuggler Ben Solo, Tags Are Hard, This is what happens when an idea festers in my head for too long, all the tension, comedy?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23111860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningGobbo/pseuds/BurningGobbo
Summary: Ben Solo wants nothing to do with his parents.  He'd grown up hearing the stories, of how his father and mother fought the Empire, how his Uncle single-handedly took down his own father and redeemed him.  How, through the years, they spent their lives running from the Empire until they could finally launch an attack that crippled them and brought peace to the galaxy.  When Ben learned he would train with his Uncle at his academy to become a Jedi, that was the moment he decided that he didn't want to get involved.  He ran off and never once looked back.However, a year into his smuggling career he runs into a scrapper on Jakku, and despite his best efforts to not get involved in a massive, galactic civil war, he finds himself thrown straight into the one situation he wanted nothing to do with in the first place.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 20
Kudos: 74





	1. The start of a terrible, terrible day.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is an idea I've had floating around in my head for a while and finally got on paper. Text. Whatever. It's going to be a long one that I'm releasing in chapters, so hopefully, I can keep a regular schedule and release on time. Enjoy!

That was, by far, the worst experience of Ben’s life.

Open space drifted in front of him now, where just moments before the blue swirl of hyperspace filled the viewscreen. Before that, asteroids threatened to batter apart his ship while turbolaser blasts tried to incinerate him. All of which was a situation that could have been so easily avoided if he’d just paid attention. But no, the draw of easy credits was too strong to resist, and he found himself staring straight down the barrels of the First Order itself.

He had picked up an easy shipment of nondescript boxes on Tatooine, from a shady Rodian whose name he didn’t end up learning. He didn’t really care, it was just a few small grey boxes, and the Rodian was glad to be rid of them. Too glad, almost. It would have been a red flag if Ben even knew what to look for. He hadn’t been off-planet for an hour before he was hailed by a First Order battlecruiser, and Ben, being the level-headed man that he was, did the only thing he could think of. He fired a warning shot at them and then took off in a blazing panic.

Okay, maybe the warning shot was a bad idea. His finger slipped. He was irritated at the Rodian for obviously having him transport stolen goods, stolen from the First Order no less, and had the crosshairs of the laser turret just over the cruiser’s bow. He ignored the first hail and was making laser gun noises with his mouth as he thought about what to do. When he was hailed a second time for not answering the first, he jumped and his finger hit the trigger. Thus started the scariest experience he’d ever known. 

Now, looking back at it, he was just glad to get away from them. There was no telling what the Order would have done to him if they caught him, and he patted the console of the Ghtroc 690 that he’d called home for the better part of a year. He’d won the ship in a completely, unbiasedly fair round of pazaak. It was a rare game to play nowadays, but he had a special deck that made it almost too easy to win. Fairly. He didn’t cheat, he wasn’t his father, and he was never going to be. He just so happened to own a piece of crap ship and smuggled stuff occasionally. He didn’t even own a vest! He wasn’t like his father and denied it any chance the thought popped into his head. 

The ship, in a sense, was a pile. He’d seen Jawa-stripped wrecks that looked better than his Ghtroc, the Gauntlet. He’d worked hard to get her to fly again, and most of her systems even worked. She was fast enough to outrun the First Order, which was a new piece of information he would have rather not known. Above all, she was his first ship, and very proud of her. He could ignore the jokes and jeers whenever he landed in a spaceport. So long as he had his ship, everything would turn out alright.

As his adrenaline died down he pulled up the holoscreen, checking to see where his cargo was going to end up. Corellia. It was a good distance away, thanks to that hyperspace jump he had to make. Oh well, another jump and he’d be there in a few hours, nothing to worry about. But just as he began to input the coordinates, a little red light on the console started blinking. He’d seen enough of those little red lights and had just managed to get them to stop. Great. He heaved a long sigh and pulled up the diagnostic screen, running a hand through his wavy black hair. Wait, this wasn’t right. The screen showed no less than four hundred errors, and the ones causing the biggest problems were due to overheating forcing some of the systems to shut off.   
“No. No no.” he groaned, scrolling through the list of problems. By the time he got to the bottom, another ten would pop up. The lights flickered.   
‘No no no. Don’t you do this to me.” Another twenty this time. Ben felt his stomach drop as the lights flickered again.

Okay, maybe pushing his ship so hard before a hyperspace jump was a terrible idea. In a panic he quickly pulled up his nav screen, frantically searching for the nearest habitable planet to land on. There was no telling if he was going to be stranded out here, and the last thing he needed was for a First Order patrol to find him floating aimlessly along. Only one planet came up in the list, and when he read the readout he let out another long, defeated sigh. It was a desert planet called Jakku.   
“I just left a desert planet, I don’t want to go to another one…” he groaned in irritation, and the lights flickered in response as if to answer, chiding him for whining about it.  
“Fine,” he replied. It was close enough that he could limp the ship there, and maybe he’d find an outpost. He could find someone to fix it, and this time, for real, he’d learn to do it himself. Not like the last ten times when he made that promise and promptly broke it.

He put in the coordinates, pushing Corellia off to take care of later. There was no way he’d make another hyperspace jump in the condition the ship was in now. Luckily, Jakku was even less populated than Tatooine was, with only a few settlements in between stretches of vast deserts. He picked one that looked promising, Niima Outpost, at least from a population standpoint set the coordinates, and sat back hoping that his ship didn’t rattle itself apart on re-entry.  
\---

“The Resistance?” Rey asked, staring at the little orange and white BB-8 unit. She was surprised to hear it, she’d only heard rumors told about the Resistance and the First Order around the washing basins. All of it seemed so far away that finding a little droid like this almost felt impossible. She wanted to leave and see the galaxy but knew she couldn’t. Not that the option wasn’t there, but because she was waiting. They would return one day.

BB let out a chirp, pulling her attention back. She’d been staring blankly at him for a few moments. She apologized and glanced at Unkar Plutt’s junkyard, a place that she was all too familiar with. Niima Outpost had nearly become a second home for her.  
“Okay, but you can’t say anything about it around here. Everyone here is a scavenger, and they’ll grab you up before you can blink.” BB stared at her, head tilting slightly as he let out a curious beep.   
“No, I know you can’t blink, it’s an expression. Just stay close and don’t talk to anyone,” she said, reaching out to check his antenna again. She’d straightened it, but straightening out a piece of bent wire was never perfect. She decided not to fuss with it anymore and stood up straight, hoisting her net of scavenged parts onto her shoulder to drag it through the sand towards the washing basins. If the parts were clean, she’d be able to get a few more portions than if she took them straight to Plutt. She’d made the mistake of trying to turn in rusted parts only once.

BB-8 let out a quiet whistle as he rolled along behind her, looking curiously around at everything and everyone. Rey felt a smile pull on her lips at the curious droid. She wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or just malfunctioning when he mentioned the Resistance and a man named Poe Dameron, but she could dream that it was true. It would be a much-needed bit of excitement in a very dull life. 

As the hours passed, she managed to get just about all of the parts clean enough to sell. BB had been sitting quietly next to her, only occasionally commenting on some of the ship parts he saw. That is, until he rolled off a little way away from her, staring straight up at the sky with a long whistle and a quiet beep. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked back at him, and she got up to walk from under the shade to look up to see what ship he was talking about. It didn’t take long for her to spot it, with the massive trail of smoke drifting from the thrusters.

She recognized it before the droid did. A Ghtroc 690. Well, not that specific ship, but she’d pulled parts from plenty of wrecks and even managed to get one into working order after being long abandoned in the sands. Even from this distance, she could tell that it was hardly able to stay aloft, and it descended much too quickly to be safe. She let out a little gasp as it neared, cutting over the junkyard and nearly hurtling into the ground before the repulsorlifts kicked in and stopped the momentum. The ship landed safely, if a little roughly, and before long the gangplank hissed open. It had landed close, close enough to see who she could only assume was the pilot, dressed in sensible spacer clothing with a mop of black, curly hair. She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it was obvious he was yelling at his ship. 

She watched as he walked over to kick one of the landing struts, before taking a few limping steps backward. The sight almost made her giggle if it wasn’t for the way he was disrespecting that machine. After another short tirade, he turned and headed towards the outpost, adjusting his belt and the blaster that hung on his thigh. BB looked at the spacer, then to her, then back to the spacer before letting out a quiet beep that startled her out of her staring.   
“No, BB. Just no,” she said with a small sigh before turning on her heel to finish cleaning the junk she’d collected. The temptation to go and fix the poor ship was a serious one, and she did her best to ignore it. 

Of course, the Gauntlet would nearly kill him. Re-entry was rougher than he was anticipating, and he’d nearly missed his landing dealing with a very small and not scary at all fire that had broken out. A loose connection had thrown sparks onto a pile of junk he’d never bothered to get rid of, and some of that junk just so happened to be flammable. He was stressed and tired and fed up, and as he got closer to the outpost and saw the person he figured he should talk to, he let out a low groan. There was a line. A line! It looked like a bunch of scrappers all selling whatever junk they found. There was little to no chance at all of skipping the line and just talking to the massive creature behind the counter, so with a resigned and heavy sigh, he made his way to the back of the line to wait. 

Rey found herself watching him as he moved to the end of the line, blinking slowly as she watched him. Okay, so it was obvious that he hadn’t been to Plutt’s business before. Or maybe he had, and he wanted to get rid of his ship. It wasn’t like he was going to get a good deal on it, but that wasn’t any of her business. BB let off with a helpful chirp and she shrugged, glancing back at the still-smoking ship.   
“He’ll be lucky to get anything for that ship. I’ll bet my day’s haul that there’s just a misplaced wire or two that caused an overheating issue,” she said, and BB chirped quietly.   
“I know a thing or two about ships,” she replied with a knowing smile, waggling the component she was washing at him. BB beeped knowingly before looking at the odd spacer again, who looked beyond agitated that he had to stand in line.

He was. The line was moving agonizingly slow, and he kept throwing glances over his shoulder at his ship to make sure it hadn’t caught fire. It hadn’t yet, and the smoke was starting to thin out, so that was something positive at least. Even with the systems cooled off, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to make another hyperspace jump without it overheating and possibly exploding. He sighed again, but before he turned back to face the line something caught his attention. A little white and orange BB unit. That was staring straight at him. At that realization, BB squeaked and turned to look at what Rey was doing, trying to hide the fact that he was staring at Ben. He followed the droid’s gaze, only now noticing the woman he was with. She seemed focused on cleaning something he couldn’t recognize, and for a moment he couldn’t help but stare. In an outpost full of alien creatures, he wasn’t expecting to see someone so beautiful. 

BB chirped quietly and Rey looked up from what she was doing, turning to see the spacer staring straight at her. Her eyes widened a bit, and she stared right back until he realized that she’d noticed and quickly turned around. It was good he did, the line had moved and he didn’t realize it. She noticed, no big deal. It was fine. Why did he feel like it wasn’t fine? He could still feel her eyes on him and he ignored it, glad to see the line was moving a little faster now. He could find someone to repair his ship and get on with this delivery, the sooner he got rid of the cargo, the better, and he wasn’t about to waste time talking to women at some backwater outpost no matter how cute they were.

Okay, so he was strange. Rey saw strange on a daily basis, but this was new and different. Spacers normally didn’t waste their time in backwater outposts like this, so it made her curious. It also didn’t hurt that he wasn’t difficult to look at. That was a thought she didn’t need to be having, so she turned back to her work and finished up the last few pieces she needed. BB just watched, looking back and forth between her and the spacer.

“Next!” Plutt bellowed as the last person in front of Ben moved to the side. He stepped forward, looking as pleasant as he could.  
“Hi. I’m in need of someone to take a look at my ship, could-”   
Plutt interrupted him, his voice growling. “Are you trading your ship?”  
“Um… No, I just need-”  
“Then get out of my line. Next!”  
Ben stared blankly at him. Okay, so he was ugly and rude.  
“I just need someone to look at my ship. I have credits.”  
“Next!”

Ben stared at him, and Plutt stared right back, daring him to say another word. Ben could feel his anger rising, and he just threw his hands up in defeat and walked off before he did anything rash. The temptation to shoot him right in his smug face was a real one, and he just had to remind himself that was something his father would do. Not him. He wasn’t his father.

Rey had watched the whole interaction from the back of the line, having finished her cleaning. BB was right by her side and beeped quietly, looking up at her. So he was just looking for someone to fix his ship. Why was he flying such a clanker if he didn’t know how to repair it on his own? That made no sense to her. After a moment’s debate and a quiet nudge from BB, she hoisted up the bag and stepped out of line, jogging to catch up to him. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her. She made it to him in short order, slowing to match his pace as she walked up beside him.   
“You need someone to fix your ship, right?” she asked, getting Ben’s attention. He looked over, shocked to see it was that same woman he’d noticed before. His eyes widened a bit, he certainly wasn’t looking to talk to her but she’d initiated all the same. 

“It’s fine, I don’t need any help. I can probably limp it to the next outpost and see if there’s someone there that can fix it.” he said with a shrug, looping his thumbs into his belt as he walked back towards his ship. He had to duck underneath another awning, stepping around a pile of boxes that were stacked precariously.  
“Why try to go to another outpost when I can do it? If you keep flying it in the condition it’s in, there’s a good chance you’ll go down before you reach the next outpost,” she said, her eyes narrowing slightly. He seemed stubborn, she could tell just by the way he rolled his eyes at her suggestion.  
“Look, I appreciate the offer, but it’ll be fine. I think I know that ship better than you do, sweetheart,” he said with a small, terse smile. He wouldn’t have been so rude if he wasn’t so irritated by the entire situation. Rey just stared at him blankly, her eyes narrowing. He wasn’t really questioning her on ships, was he? And he didn’t just call her sweetheart. BB gave a quiet warning boop which she ignored. 

“First of all, that is a Ghtroc 690. Do you have the slightest idea how many of those I’ve disassembled for parts? I found one abandoned and restored it to perfect working order. If you don’t know how to fix a simple overheating issue, then I can personally guarantee that I know more about that ship than you do. Second of all, do not call me sweetheart.” Irritation was obvious in her voice, and it only grated on Ben’s nerves. He stopped walking and turned to face her, leaning over slightly towards her. She was shorter than him and staring up at him with a defiant look in her eyes.

“Good for you. I’m not in the mood for whatever you’re going to try and swindle as payment for fixing my ship. The only reason someone runs up and offers their services is if they’re about to fleece you, I know that much. So whatever scam you’re running, I’m not interested. Okay, sweetheart?” he asked, a terse grin on his face.   
“I told you not to call me that.” she hissed, clenching her fists and dropping her bag of parts.  
“Oh? What are you going to do, hit me with that stick of yours?” he asked defiantly, glancing at the staff on her back.  
“I am very sorely tempted to,” she replied. BB beeped a warning again and both of them ignored it. Ben just stared her down and she returned it with a stare of her own.

After a few moments of staring, Ben was just about to dare her to do something when he heard a sound that was far too familiar. He was sure he was just hearing things, there was no way that they got here that quickly. Rey perked up as well, her irritation forgotten as she heard the same sound. She gave a glance to BB, who let out a panicked little whine, and the wind shifted just right to bring the sound straight to the three of them. It was the distinct scream of ion engines. TIEs.

“Dammit! How did they find me?”  
“Dammit, how did they find us?”

Rey and Ben both exclaimed at the same time, their words nearly identical. BB let out a panicked squeal, and Ben and Rey went from staring at the source of the sound to staring at each other in shock.   
“What did you do?” they both asked each other at the exact same moment. This conversation was going nowhere, fast, and before either of them could answer the sound of laser fire jolted them out of their staring contest. The explosions happened almost instantaneously, filling the air with screams and dust and fire. One of the shots landed close enough to them to launch them several feet away. Ben landed hard, the impact driving the air out of his lungs, while Rey rolled to her feet. BB bounced a few times but was otherwise fine. The TIEs roared past overhead and shot away into the distance, both of them banking left and coming back around. 

“They’re coming back!” Rey yelled, running over and yanking Ben to his feet. He was dazed, taking a huge gulp of air as she pulled him up fairly easily. His ribs hurt, but even in his pained state, he knew he wasn’t hurt. What was worse was the fact that he could feel sand under his clothes. He didn’t know where this aversion came from, and he really didn’t care, but having the back of your pants filled with sand while running from a First Order strafing run was not his idea of a good time. Once he was steady she kept her hands on his, looking up at him with a mix of irritation, fear, and something else he couldn’t quite identify.  
“We have to get to your ship! Now!” she said, letting go and running off towards the Gauntlet without waiting for his answer. BB was already a good way ahead, making a beeline for the ship.

“Wait!” Ben yelled, kicking himself as he ran after her. There was no way the ship would outrun a pair of TIEs, not in the state it was in. He didn’t know what had gotten into her head, but she was obviously crazy. Spent too much time out here in the desert. None of her Banthas were in a row. Just the thought of having to deal with her irritated him, and he put on an extra burst of speed just as he heard the lasers fire again. They were closer now, cutting a line behind him where he’d just been. Shit shit shit. More speed, had to get to the ship. This was insane, the First Order going through all of this just to recover some stolen cargo. It didn’t make any sense at all.

Maybe what this scavenger said meant something. It seemed like she was on the run too, if she and that droid could be believed. He didn’t know why, and he wasn’t going to ask. He was a little preoccupied with not dying at the moment. 

Rey and BB had already made it onto the ship, and Ben boarded a few moments later. The second he turned the corner he came to a screeching halt, not entirely sure what he was looking at. This scavenger hadn’t run off to hide somewhere in the ship. She didn’t even run to the cockpit to try and steal his ship. No, as he turned the corner, he saw her pressed against the wall, with a panel open, shoulder-deep in the guts and wires of his ship.  
“What the hell are you doing?!” Ben squealed, a mix of rage and fear in his voice. She was going to destroy his ship.

Rey glanced at him before reaching just a little deeper, and with a loud crack and a few sparks, she removed her arm, holding a metal cylinder with frayed wires sticking out of the end. BB let out a squeal and she grinned at him.   
“No, I win the bet. See? There are wires.” she said, pointing to them and explicitly ignoring Ben.   
“Don’t tear my ship apart!” he yelled, dumbfounded as he stared at her.   
“I’m not! If you’re going to install illegal modifications, make sure you do it right! Installing a phase scrubber improperly is going to cause all sorts of overheating issues!” she said, tossing the part rather accurately into a box on the other side of the room. Ben stared at her agape, blinking slowly as he tried to parse what just happened. He had certainly noticed that the low-pitched whine his ship was making suddenly stopped when she pulled it, the lights stopped flickering, and the engines spooled up as healthy as ever.

“Don’t pull stuff out of my ship!” he yelled again, receiving a flat look from Rey. The sound of the TIEs coming back around pulled him back to reality and he pushed past her to the cockpit. He could see them coming back around for another pass, the black ships stark against the bright blue of the sky. His hands moved quickly and the engines spooled up louder, and he spared just a moment to look at the little red light on the console. It wasn’t blinking anymore. Dammit, she was right.

Without shouting a warning the ship lifted off the desert surface, sending Rey nearly tumbling to the floor as she rushed to the cockpit. She settled herself in the seat next to him in time to see him wheel the ship directly towards the TIE fighters.   
“What are you doing?!” she yelped as he hit the thrusters, the ship hurtling off at high speed straight towards the incoming fighters.   
“Hold on!” he yelled back as he saw an incoming flash of green that was all too familiar. He put the Gauntlet into a sharp roll, just narrowly avoiding the blasts, and continued it just enough to slip the ship right in between the pair of fighters. He leveled it out and nosedived towards the sand, only pulling up at the last moment leaving ten feet between the ship and the desert below. Rey was holding on for dear life, one hand propped up on the low ceiling of the cockpit, the other holding onto her seat, and both feet wedged firmly against the console. 

“Are you insane?! You could have got us killed!” she yelled at him, fear and adrenaline tinting her voice.   
“Yeah, but I didn’t, so shut up!” he spat back, narrowly carving the Gauntlet around a cliffside before heading out towards the open desert. Well, mostly open desert. An ancient wreck was in front of them, massive and looming. Even from here he could tell it was an old Imperial Star Destroyer. His father had told him all about outrunning them during his smuggling escapades before he met his mother. Even afterward.   
“Why are you taking us straight towards the only thing in this desert to hit?” Rey shot at him, glaring at him from the passenger seat. Ben bit back a curse as the sand in front of them exploded in a flash of green light.  
“TIEs are effective in open spaces! Why give them a fair shot?” he asked, banking the ship just before another bolt arced across the viewscreen and detonated another patch of sand.   
“You’re going to get us killed!”  
“Not if we’re lucky!”

Great. Her life was now hinged on some deranged spacer hoping he was ‘lucky’. She stared at him, unable to look out of the viewscreen. He almost looked… happy? He certainly didn’t look terrified, or angry. Just focused, with the smallest hint of a smile on his lips. Like he was enjoying this. Another flash of green shot over the ship, lighting up his face for a brief moment. Okay, so he was insane. Good to know. She pulled her eyes away from him, seeing the wreck ahead of them looming closer. Ben shifted and moved the ship just enough to narrowly avoid the shots, waiting for his chance as the engine of the Star Destroyer came closer. His hand moved to the console and he put on a little more speed.  
“Don’t you dare do what I think you’re going to do,” Rey growled at him through gritted teeth. Ben stopped paying attention to the viewport and stared at her with a blank expression on his face.   
“I’m the pilot, you’re the passenger, don’t tell me how to fly my own damn ship,” he said. Rey felt her heart rate pick up as her face went red with anger.   
“Don’t look at me, idiot! Watch where we’re going!”   
Ben just kept staring for a moment longer before doing what he was told. Rey just kept staring, she couldn’t bring herself to look at the looming, impending doom of twisted, ancient metal ahead of them.

Then, everything went dark. He hadn’t even slowed down as he shot straight into the engine of the ancient craft, and a split second later he heard a single explosion behind them. He let out a yell of a cheer before rolling the Gauntlet to avoid a rusted-out pipe.   
“Told you,” he said, surprisingly calm for the fact that they were hurtling through a mass of pipes and machinery, the ship just narrowly avoiding being torn to shreds. The last TIE was at least being piloted by someone that knew what they were doing, Ben could admit. Rey wasn’t amused in the slightest.

There was a flash of sunlight and he suddenly banked, shooting out through a cruiser-sized hole in the hull and back out into the desert. The TIE followed closely and resumed shooting as soon as they were out of the wreckage.   
“What now?” Rey asked. Ben groaned under his breath, glancing at her for a moment.   
“Well, you could stop talking and let me concentrate, for starters.”   
Rey could already tell this was going to be a very long day.

The TIE fired again and managed to clip the starboard side of the ship. The blast rocked the ship and Ben cursed. He’d never managed to get the shields up and running.   
“Oh, good, I was hoping my day would end in a fireball.” Rey spat sarcastically, causing Ben to roll his eyes.   
“Okay, fine. I’m done with this,” he said, moving the turret into the forward position, away from the TIE behind them. He suddenly cut the throttle and yanked on the stick hard, the ship flipping and rolling in a stall to face the TIE. He fired, sending a barrage of crimson bolts at the ship. Several missed their mark by a wide margin, but one managed to clip the support holding the wing to the cockpit. The wing tore itself off and sent the TIE spiraling to the sand. Ben flipped the ship back around and got back on the thrusters, sending the ship hurtling forward. 

“There. No more TIEs. Happy?” he spat at her, pulling the nose up and pointing it towards the sky. It only took a few moments for the blue to fade out to a black field dotted with spots of light.   
“No, I’m not. You could have gotten us killed!” she said, finally releasing her death grip on the seat and rotating it towards him.   
“But I didn’t. So, you’re welcome,” he said with a shrug. Once the screen showed they were clear he frowned slightly. TIEs like that couldn’t have gone off on their own to look for them. There had to be another First Order ship nearby, and the fact that he couldn’t see it on his scopes made him nervous. Without missing a beat he put the coordinates in for Corellia, angled the ship, and within a moment the swirling blue of hyperspace replaced the inky black and stars. 

“Wait… What are you doing?” Rey asked, folding her arms over her chest as she stared out through the viewport.   
“I’ve got some cargo I have to unload. Once we get to Corellia, you’re more than welcome to go literally anywhere else,” he said.   
“I need to go back,” she said with a tone of finality.   
“Back? Wait, to Jakku?” Ben asked, finally able to move away from the console and turn to look at her. She nodded once, tersely, and stared at him as if to dare him to tell her no.  
“No. Not a chance. I’m never going to that dirtball planet again, especially after getting chased by the First Order. You do realize that planet’s going to be on lockdown because of our little stunt, right?”  
“I don’t care. I need to go back.”  
“Then you can find someone else to do it for you, sweetheart. Because I’m not.”

Rey moved in a flash, her arm whipping out to deliver a solid slap across Ben’s cheek. It happened so fast that Ben didn’t have time to react, and just stared up at her with a mixture of shock and anger on his face as she got up and stormed out of the cockpit. He stared at her as she vanished out of sight, reaching up to rub the stinging mark on his cheek. Not the first time he’d been slapped, but it seemed to sting worse coming from her.

Rey was furious. She couldn’t just leave like that! She had to go back as soon as she could, and this self-absorbed, crazy spacer wasn’t going to do it! She realized a little late that she didn’t know his name, but at this point, she was too angry to care. She also realized that she hadn’t seen BB in a while, and heard distressed chirping coming from under a pile of junk in the corner of the cargo bay. She made her way over and dug through the trash, noticing that some of it was freshly burned, and after a few moments BB’s head popped up and stared at her with an inquisitive beep.  
“Yes, we’re all okay. Except for the pilot, I think he might be crazy,” she said with a little laugh, reaching up to fix BB’s antenna again. BB let out a curious buzz and chirp, causing Rey to tense up at the question.   
“No. Absolutely not. Not after finding out that his personality is literal garbage.” She had thought he was kind of cute at first, but after getting to know him and almost getting killed because of his reckless behavior, all thoughts of ‘cute’ were out. 

BB freed himself from the last of it and rolled a little bit away, looking curiously down the hall to the viewport in the cockpit. He chirped and Rey sighed, moving to sit down on the cold metal floor.  
“Corellia, apparently. We’ve found ourselves in league with a big, scary smuggler!” she said much too loudly, to make sure Ben could hear it in the cockpit. Ben certainly did, and it pulled a heavy sigh from him as he got up and made his way down the hall until he could see her. 

“That’s right, I’m a smuggler. I smuggle things. It’s a job. Kind of like picking up worthless trash to sell.” he said, leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. There was a distinct handprint on his cheek, bright red against his light skin. Rey felt her blood boil at that and glared at him, matching him by folding her arms over her chest.   
“At least I do something honest.”  
“Stealing parts from Imperial ships isn’t exactly honest.”  
“It’s not stealing if it’s garbage.” she spat back. BB let out a little whine.  
“So you admit that you collect garbage. You’re a garbage collector.” Ben replied with a lopsided smirk. Rey’s face went red with anger and she stood up quickly, nearly knocking BB away. She let out a frustrated growl and stomped off, but after a few minutes of stomping, she came back to glare at him.  
“Is there anywhere on this damn ship that I can go to get away from you?”

Ben shrugged, crossing one ankle over the other. He was enjoying this far too much, getting under her skin was surprisingly easy.  
“You can always go hang out in the airlock. I won’t bother you there.”  
“You’re stupid if you think I’m going to trust you not to shoot me out into space.”  
Ben laughed, and Rey felt another wave of heat run through her. He had a nice laugh. Dammit, that just made her angrier.  
“Good, you’re learning. Don’t trust me, I’m not a good guy,” he said with a shrug. She didn’t know any better, so she didn’t need to know that he was new to this whole smuggling gig and often folded during negotiations with more seasoned clients. 

Rey just kept glaring at him, saying nothing. Ben tilted his head slightly, that smirk still firmly on his lips.   
“So.” he finally said, pushing off of the wall and unfolding his arms. He made his way over to her and BB, and the droid rolled back a little bit as he approached with a quiet whine.   
“You never answered my question. What did you do to get the First Order’s attention?”  
Rey leaned back slightly, as he got much too close for her liking, and fought back the urge to slap him again. He was just so… Ugh.  
“That is none of your business until you tell me why they were after you,” she said sharply.  
“Stolen First Order cargo. Right under your feet.” he said, glancing down to where she was standing. Rey felt a surge of irritation at how quickly he answered, her eyes locked with his. Damn him.

He stared at her with that same smirk on his face, just begging for it to get slapped off. He was waiting for an answer she didn’t want to give. She just glanced at BB, who looked up at her with an unsure twitter.   
“I can’t tell you. Highly classified information,” she said, turning her nose up at him. Ben blinked, an eyebrow lifting just a bit.  
“Classified. A garbage collector deals in classified information.”  
“You want me to slap you again, don’t you?” Rey growled.   
“What can I say? I liked it.” Ben retorted. Rey’s eyes went huge, a new flush of red spreading to her face. She stammered for a moment, and had to put her hand down where it had lifted to slap him again. She couldn’t do that, it was what he wanted. Or maybe he was bluffing. She didn’t know, and he’d backed her into a figurative corner with that.

“I literally can’t tell you,” she said, folding her arms over her chest as she stared defiantly up at him. “Why do you need to know, anyway?”   
Ben shrugged. “Because, if for whatever reason you don’t leave my ship when we get to Corellia, I really don’t like the idea of being chased by the First Order because I’m harboring a pair of fugitives.”  
“We’re not fugitives.”   
“Then why would the First Order be after you?”  
Rey bit her tongue.   
“The airlock is looking extremely tempting, so you know,” Rey growled. Ben just leaned a little closer to make up the distance.  
“I didn’t want you on my ship in the first place, so…” he replied, letting the statement hang in the air. BB had stopped his chirping and whistling for a long while, and Rey finally glanced away to see what he was doing. Anything was better than dealing with this smuggler.

BB was staring at the ceiling above them. His eye moved a bit and he’d tilt his head, then tilt it back, the whole time his eye focused on the grating above them. Rey looked at him curiously, then up at the grating. She didn’t see anything. Ben sighed under his breath, looking at the two of them staring up at the ceiling now.   
“What, you see something else to rip out of my ship?” he asked, a snarky tone on his voice. He looked up too, and didn’t see anything. At least, not at first.

Ben prided himself on knowing his ship fairly well. It was his first and only ship, and in a way he was jealous of the relationship that his father shared with the Falcon. He hoped to form that bond one day with the Gauntlet, and he knew he’d have to know every last bolt and wire to do so. There was one thing that he knew for absolutely certain, and as his eyes locked on it he felt a chill shoot through him. There wasn’t supposed to be a wide-open eyeball staring straight at him through the grating.


	2. Now there are two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I think I'm gonna try and update this weekly on Wednesday. It's not like I don't have all the time in the world now. :P

Ben let out a startled yell and jumped backward, stumbling and falling hard to the metal floor. He scrambled back away from what he saw, and he knew the eye was just following his every movement. Rey jumped at the sudden scream, staring at Ben like he’d lost his mind.  
“What’s your problem?” she asked before BB let out a chirp. Before she could ask what he meant, a completely unfamiliar voice spoke from directly above her.

“I know this is weird, but can I get some help? I’m stuck.”  
Rey stared blankly at the source of the voice, a chill sliding through her as she saw the eye staring right at her. Without a word she turned, walked straight into the cockpit and sat down in the copilot’s seat. She was startled badly enough that she couldn’t say or do a thing other than to quickly remove herself from the situation. BB watched but didn’t follow, too interested in why there was a person stuck up in the ceiling.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my ship?!” Ben yelped, scrambling to his feet to storm over under the grating and stare up at the eye he could see. His blaster had already cleared its holster and was pointed straight up at the source of the voice.  
“Whoa! Hey, easy! I’m not gonna do anything, I just need some help!” the voice said. Ben’s hand was trembling, the adrenaline rushing through him messing up his aim and his common sense. It wouldn’t be a good idea to blast a hole in the side of his ship while they were in hyperspace.  
“That doesn’t answer my question! Why are you on my ship?”  
“Okay, fine, just calm down! I was at Niima Outpost when I saw your ship come in. Didn’t think anything of it, was gonna ask you if you could give me a lift, and then those TIEs showed up. I knew they were after me, so I figured I could hide in your ship. You know, it’s a pile of junk, the Order wouldn’t care about blowing it up.”

“My ship’s not a pile. Why is everyone running from the First Order?!” he growled, frustration setting in.  
“It’s kind of a pile. No offense, but I’ve been stuck up here for a while since you decided to play swoop racer and jam me up in between these pipes. It looks so much cleaner down there.”  
This day was shaping up to be quite eventful, and Ben was hating every second of it.  
“Okay, let me get this straight. You’re yet another fugitive from the First Order, and you just so happened to decide to hide on my ship. It didn’t occur to you that I might, you know, take off at some point?!”  
“I thought you were going to Plutt to trade it! Not like you would have gotten much for it.”  
“Watch it, or I’ll leave you up there.”  
“I’m just saying I thought it was going to be parked for a lot longer than it was. You know it’s not normal to have smoke coming out of your engines, right?”

Ben let out another growl.  
“Sorry. I’m just getting a little claustrophobic and my leg’s had a cramp for the last half hour. I would appreciate some help. Please.” The ‘please’ was a little forced, but Ben just rolled his eyes and holstered his blaster. He lifted the grating and slid it back away from the source of the voice, revealing someone he didn’t recognize. Dark skin and equally wide, dark eyes stared back at him. He’d never seen this man before in his life, and he let out a small groan after a moment. Now there were two of them.  
“Thanks… Moving the grate didn’t really help,” he said, holding his arms out towards Ben. Ben stared at them for a moment before rolling his eyes and sighing, reaching up to grab him. He started to pull, yanking a yelp out of the stowaway.  
“Ow! Be careful!” he hissed. Ben narrowed his eyes a bit and pulled a little harder. He moved just a bit, and with another pull he suddenly came free, sliding straight out of the ceiling and landing squarely on Ben.

They both landed hard on the floor, and Ben let out a wheeze as the air was driven out of his lungs for a second time that day.  
“Sorry, wasn’t trying to land on you,” he said, quickly getting up. He offered Ben a hand and a wide smile. Ben just stared at the hand and got up by himself, though he only managed a sitting position as he tried to catch his breath.  
“Okay, who the hell are you, anyway?” Ben growled, staring up at the stranger. He just gave a little grin.  
“FN-2187.” A pause, and then he corrected himself. “Finn. Sorry. My name’s Finn.”  
“Why didn’t you ask my name?” an irritated voice rang out from the cockpit. Ben rolled his eyes.  
“Because I don’t care!”  
Finn stared at him, then to where the disembodied voice came from.  
“Okay, from everything I’ve seen so far, you’re really rude. I saw you picking on that poor girl.”  
“Poor girl? Trust me, she absolutely isn’t.” Ben said, finally pulling himself to his feet.

Finn sighed, not wanting to get in the middle of it. Still, he felt like he was going to be.  
“You asked why I was running from the First Order? I’m a Stormtrooper. Or, well, used to be. I helped a Resistance pilot escape because I wanted out.” Finn explained, leaving Ben speechless. A stormtrooper? He had enough to deal with at the moment, he wasn’t going to deal with a member of the First Order.  
“I was joking about the stolen cargo under the floorboards,” he said with narrowed eyes.  
“What? I don’t care about- Look, I need to go back to Jakku. That resistance pilot, Poe, told me he was looking for a BB-8 unit exactly like that one.” He pointed sharply to BB, who let out an inquisitive squeal.  
“We got separated when our TIE crashed in the desert. If he’s still down there, I have to find him.”

Ben couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He took a step towards the hallway, making eye contact with Rey, who just scowled at him. He turned back and stormed over to Finn, who was staring at him wide-eyed. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Everyone wanted to go back to Jakku. Ben felt his eye twitch as something snapped in the back of his mind. This was leading into literally everything he had run from when he left the Academy in the first place.

“No. No more Jakku. No more First Order. No more running around and getting shot at. No more plots, no more Resistance, no more nothing!” Ben was almost at his breaking point. Finn was stunned into silence, and during his tirade, Rey had made her way out of the cockpit to watch him.

“I absolutely REFUSE to be yanked into some convoluted plan where I join the Rebels against my will and help them fight the Empire just because my Uncle’s dad has a genocide obsession!!” he yelled. BB backed up, Finn was too shocked to do much but stare with his mouth open.  
“I. AM. NOT. MY. FATHER!” he bellowed, boot stomping with each word against the metal grating below him causing it to rattle loudly. He finally finished his tantrum, sinking back to the floor as he crossed his legs and stared at the metal with anger burning in his eyes. Finn looked to Rey, who looked just as shocked as him. She shrugged, and Finn knew he would have to handle this on his own. Whatever this was. 

“Uh… You okay? That was... Oddly specific.” he said, leaning over a bit to try and look at Ben’s face. Ben said nothing, his fists clenched tight in anger.  
“Buddy? Do you need some space?” Ben only replied with a short, sharp, single nod, not daring to look up at him. Finn took a step around him like he was walking on eggshells.  
“Okay, uh… I’m… I’m gonna go talk with her a little bit. You just stay there and… You do you.” Okay, this was way more awkward than he was expecting. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything and just left when they landed wherever they were going. He skirted around Ben and made his way over to Rey, not taking his eyes off the huddled mess in the middle of the floor.  
“BB, keep an eye on him, okay?” Rey asked. BB looked at her and chirped in surprise, before looking back at Ben. Back to her, back to Ben. She just gave him a look and he whined a resigned noise.

Finn motioned for Rey to follow him to the cockpit. Rey did, giving one more glance to the man curled in on himself on the floor. She felt a hint of concern for him, despite how he’d been treating her since they met. That feeling of concern was pushed away as she turned her back on him, leaving him curled up on the metal floor by himself.

Finn walked into the cockpit, taking a look around for a moment.  
“This thing’s kind of a pile,” he said again, quietly enough that only Rey could hear it. It pulled a quiet laugh out of her.  
“I didn’t want to tell him. What do you think that was all about?” she asked, nodding with her head back down the short hallway. Finn shrugged and sat down in the pilot’s chair.  
“I don’t have a clue. That was some serious outburst.” Finn sighed as Rey nodded.  
“Has he been like this the whole time? I blacked out a little in the ceiling when he decided to play ‘Ace Pilot’ and apparently missed a lot of yelling.” Finn pointed out. Rey smiled a little, just glad to have someone to talk to that wasn’t a total ass.  
“Yes, he’s been completely insufferable. Rude, sarcastic, arrogant. I am nearly tempted to leave when we get to Corellia or wherever it is he’s going.” That thought scared her. She didn’t have a credit to her name, had never left Jakku, and had no idea what was out there waiting for her.  
“You said you were a Stormtrooper? What’s it like out in the galaxy?” she asked, scooting a bit forward in her seat. Finn blinked at her, trying to figure out of she was joking.  
“You’re joking, right? It’s the galaxy. Tons of people, lots of planets, everyone’s worse than he is. At least he didn’t shoot you. You’re talking like you’ve never left Jakku.”  
Rey’s eyes widened a little and a blush settled on her cheeks. She didn’t like how he said that, like she was just expected to up and leave that desert planet whenever she wanted.  
“Okay, so you’ve never left Jakku. Why not?” he asked. 

Rey shifted uncomfortably in the seat for a moment. “I just couldn’t. It’s not something I want to discuss.” That wasn’t an answer that Finn was expecting, so he just stared at her for a moment.  
“Okay, fair enough,” he said, and that was that. He watched her, trying to figure her out. She seemed trustworthy enough, unlike the pilot of the wreck they were currently hurtling through space in. 

“What about you? Why aren’t you a Stormtrooper anymore?” Finn blinked, staying silent for a long time.  
“That’s a really long story,” he said quickly. Rey blinked in surprise, then after a moment let out a quiet laugh.  
“I suppose we all have our secrets then,” she said, sparing a glance towards the hallway. What she wasn’t expecting was to see Ben standing there, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. She let out a small noise of surprise and jumped, the smuggler’s sudden appearance startling her. Finn looked over and reacted the same way, holding his hand over his heart.  
“Don’t just sneak up on us like that!” he said. Ben didn’t look amused.  
“It’s my ship, I do what I want. Get out of my chair,” he said, pointing to a third empty seat just behind the pilot’s chair. Rey had already claimed the co-pilot’s seat, though she hadn’t realized it yet.

Finn grumbled and got up, switching seats. Ben slid into his rightful place, turning so he could face both of them.  
“My name is Ben Solo,” he said simply, folding his arms over his chest. “Since the two of you are unwillingly on my ship for the time being, I suppose I should at least know your name.” he said, angling his gaze towards Rey. Her eyes widened a bit and her cheeks flushed at the sudden change from the yelling, tantrum-throwing young man from earlier.  
“Rey.”  
“Rey what?”  
“Just Rey.”  
Ben’s eye twitched a bit, thinking that she was just trying his patience again.  
“Okay, ‘just Rey’. Between you and Finn I’m the only one here with a surname. That’s not strange at all.” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Finn didn’t look amused, he was just given that name a few hours prior by a man that he really, really hoped wasn’t dead. At the mention of his surname though, Rey paused. He’d mentioned what it was, and her irritation didn’t let her process it until just now. Solo. She knew that name, she’d heard it plenty of times from travelers and traders.  
“Solo? Like General Solo? Captain of the Millenium Falcon?” she asked, her eyes widening. Ben’s eye twitched again, more violently this time.  
“Absolutely not. No relation. Don’t ever mention that name to me again.” he said sharply and in quick succession. The ‘request’ made Rey’s eyes widen even further.  
“You’re his son,” she said with a wide grin. The grin threw Ben off, he’d only seen her scowl up until now. It felt like lead had settled in his stomach when he saw it.  
“I said don’t talk about it,” he warned. Finn looked back and forth between the two of them, not sure how to step in and stop this from happening.  
“You don’t have to. I’ve always wanted to see the Millenium Falcon myself. That ship did the Kessel run in fourteen parsecs!” she said to Finn excitedly. Ben glared at her.  
“Twelve!” he corrected. Rey stared at him before narrowing her eyes. She didn’t want to fight him on this, but if he was really the son of the legendary Han Solo he would probably know better than him.

“I used to think that the Falcon was in Plutt’s shipyard. He has had a YT-1300 sitting in his yard for ages.”  
Ben stared at her. “He what? Greyish color, square comms array?” He could have gone into much more detail, having spent most of his life on that ship, but he didn’t. Rey looked surprised and nodded, which made Ben go pale. He was right next to the Falcon and didn’t even see it. It had been stolen a few years back, and his dad was furious. For a brief, minuscule split second, he was tempted to go back to Niima Outpost, just to be sure. That temptation was nixed immediately and he just stared at Rey for a long while, until she got fed up and snapped a sharp, “What?” at him.  
“You’re absolutely sure it had a square comms array?” he asked. Rey frowned, not liking being questioned. She’d spent days staring at that ship, halfway hidden under a tarp, dreaming about getting close enough to see if it was really the Falcon.  
“Yes,” she said.  
“Had a couple red patch panels on it?”  
“Yes.”  
“Did it look like it had been flown through a few asteroid fields with little regard to the passengers?”  
“What? Yes, it did, though I don’t think an old YT-1300 warrants an interrogation.” Rey snapped. Ben stared blankly at her, trying to work through his options. 

On the one hand, he could turn the ship around, go back to Niima Outpost, blast through the First Order barricade that he didn’t doubt was already in place, and go pick up the Falcon. On the other, he could just get a hold of his dad directly and tell him. Neither option was a good one.  
“So you’re telling me that not only did I pick up a stolen load of First Order cargo, I got shot at, picked up a garbage collector, got shot at again, found an idiot Stormtrooper jammed up in the ceiling of my ship, and on top of all of that I was that close to the Falcon and didn’t even know it?”  
“I’m not a garbage collector.” Rey spat.  
“And I’m not an idiot. Or a Stormtrooper.” Finn corrected. Ben ignored them both.  
“Okay. That’s all very good to know. I was really expecting when I woke up today that I would have the worst possible day of my life.” Ben spat sarcastically. “Excuse me for a moment,” he said before the other two could speak. He turned his chair, cleared his throat, and brought his forehead down hard on the console. Rey and Finn exchanged concerned glances as they stared at Ben, hair pooling around his face on the metal of the console.  
“Is this another tantrum?” Rey whispered. Finn stared at her with wide eyes and shrugged.

There was a quiet flicker of a hum for a moment, and the cockpit was bathed in a bluish-white light as a hologram popped up. Finn and Rey both looked to see what it was, and Finn’s face dropped. There was a woman staring at them. She had a kind look on her weathered face, though it was obviously tinted with confusion as she looked at both Rey and Finn. Her hair was neatly tied up and braided, and the hint of a high collar could be seen around her neck. Finn recognized her instantly. She had been the subject of many meetings and strategies. The First Order had been looking for her for as long as he could remember. 

General Leia Organa. 

The hologram looked back and forth between the two of them, lips set in a tight line. It wasn’t until Ben finally pulled his head up from the console and noticed the change in the light did she finally say something, a smile forming where the disappointed look had been.  
“Hello, Ben. I didn’t think you were ever going to contact me,” she said sweetly, causing Ben’s head to snap up, his hair flipping back as his eyes became the size of saucers.  
“Mom!” he spat. His day just got worse.  
“You know, your Uncle Luke is very disappointed in you. He told me how you ran off from the Academy. But it looks like you’re doing well, you have your own ship and crew now?” she asked. Rey and Finn both stared at her with wide eyes and said nothing.  
“What? No, they’re not my crew. She’s a garbage collector and he’s a Stormtrooper.” he stammered out.  
“Not a garbage collector.”  
“Not a Stormtrooper.” they both corrected again.  
“Oh. Well, you really should talk to your Uncle again. He-”  
“That’sgreatmomI’llcallyoulatersorrybye.” Ben shot in quick succession before slamming his hand down on the button to end the call. The hologram winked out of existence, and Ben was left staring at the spot it had been for several long moments before he slumped, letting out a defeated sigh. 

Finn stared at the spot the hologram was, then stared at Ben. A thousand questions all ran through his mind at once, but only one of them stuck out.  
“That was General Organa. Leader of the Resistance. General Organa is your mom.”  
Ben let out another sigh but didn’t feel like fighting him on this. There was no way that he could explain this one away.  
“Yes, she is.”  
“And Han Solo is your father.”  
“Yes,” Ben replied through gritted teeth.  
“Who the hell are you?” Finn asked after a short pause. Ben glanced over his shoulder at him, staring at him through the mess his hair had become.  
“I’m nobody. From nowhere. Don’t worry about it.”

Finn blinked. “You can’t be ‘nobody’ from ‘nowhere’ if General Leia Organa is your mother! Was I hearing things, or did she say ‘Luke’? Like, Luke Skywalker?”  
“There’s a lot of people in the galaxy named Luke.”  
“Yeah, but with a track record like yours, I think that narrows down the list. A lot.” Finn pointed out. Rey was just staring at Ben with wide eyes.  
“It really doesn’t. Don’t worry about it.” Ben said with a heavy sigh. He turned to look out of the viewport, wondering how long it was going to be before this trip was over and he could kick them out of his ship. As he did, he noticed something that made his stomach drop into his ankles.

There was a little blinking light on the console. It wasn’t the red light he was so used to seeing, or a green one indicating that they were nearing Corellia. It was blue. For the hologram. His mother was trying to call him back. She was probably furious about him hanging up like that, and the last thing he wanted to do was try and talk to her with everything else going on. He just stared at that little blinking light until Rey finally spoke up.  
“Are you going to answer?” she asked, her voice quiet.  
“No.,” he said, getting out of his chair and brushing past Finn. Without another word, he was gone, and a few moments later a door slammed shut somewhere in the ship.

Rey and Finn looked at the light, then to each other, and there was a moment’s pause before they both rushed forward to answer the call. Rey got there first, and the moment her hand slammed down on the button Leia’s image appeared.  
“Ben, you can’t just hang up on me after not speaking with me or your father for over a year,” she said sternly. It took a moment for her to realize that Ben wasn’t there, and she looked confused.  
“Where’s Ben?” she asked.  
“No idea. He just stormed off and we heard a door slam.” Finn answered. Rey nodded in agreement.  
“Oh, I see. He’s throwing another tantrum, just let him be for a little while. He’ll get over it.” she said with a small grin on her features. There was a short silence before she spoke again.  
“So, if you two aren’t his crew, who are you?” she asked. Finn glanced at Rey, who returned the look.  
“Uh… Well, that’s kind of a long story.” Finn said.  
“I have time,” Leia replied.  
“He was only kind of wrong about me. I used to be a Stormtrooper. I left the First Order.” he said.  
“I don’t really collect garbage… We both met him on Jakku. I scavenge old ships for parts to sell.” Rey pointed out. 

BB rolled his way in, hearing a familiar voice, and let out a loud tirade of squeaks and beeps at the sight of Leia. Her eyes lit up, then narrowed slightly as she looked at the other two.  
“Why is Dameron’s droid there with you?” she asked, wondering exactly what sort of mess her son had found himself in. Finn blinked, not liking the look she was giving him. It kind of reminded him of what he felt whenever he heard Phasma’s voice out of nowhere being directed at him.  
“He found me on Jakku. He had been wandering around trying to find a way to rescue Poe.” Rey explained. She was really talking to General Leia Organa. She didn’t even try to hide the wide smile on her face.  
“Poe helped me escape. He’d been captured, and when I found out he was a Resistance pilot I knew he was my only chance to get out.” Finn added.  
“And where is Dameron now?”  
Finn swallowed hard, reaching up to scratch at the back of his head nervously.  
“Our TIE crashed in the desert and we got separated. If he’s alive, he’s still on Jakku.”

Ben was holed up in his quarters, a repurposed storage closet with a makeshift bed against the wall. How did everything fall apart so quickly? This was insane. He was going down the exact same road that his father had, completely against his will. He didn’t want to get involved in some galactic civil war, he didn’t want to be a Jedi, he didn’t want any of this. He’d left the academy to get away from precisely what was happening now. Yes, he knew the Force was real, he could manipulate it, but he refused to believe that it had some higher plan for him. He could make his own way. He didn’t need his parents or his uncle. He could do his own thing and live his life how he wanted.

He sighed quietly and reached up to a hastily-bolted shelf, pushing aside a few spare parts to reveal a plasteel box. He picked it up and dusted it off and brought it to his lap before opening it. Inside the fabric-lined box was his lightsaber. He’d packed it away the day he left the academy, and he couldn’t bring himself to get rid of it. He plucked it from the box and felt the weight on it, his finger brushing the activation button for a moment. All it would take would be a little bit of pressure to ignite the bright blue blade, but he refrained. It was all memories he didn’t want to have. He would have gladly been born on some no-name backwater planet in the Outer Rim if it meant he could have a normal life. But no, he had to be born to a pair of people that had legends written around their names. He wanted nothing to do with their lives, although it seemed he was being pulled into the same ruts as they traveled. 

His thumb traced the long, straight lines of the hilt, noticing that he’d used it enough to start wearing away at the coating where his hands gripped it. Long hours of training under a strict Luke. He was always held to a higher standard than the rest of the students, just because of who his parents were. It was maddening. He hated every moment that he spent there, and when a supply ship came in to deliver, he snuck onboard and escaped. He hopped transports from planet to planet before he could get enough credits to by the Gauntlet, and that was that. He had a ship, his new home, and could go wherever he wanted. Of course, fate had a different plan for him, and now he was hip-deep in trouble with the First Order. This wasn’t how he ever thought he was going to spend his day. In a way, he almost regretted how harshly he was treating Rey and Finn. That regret was quickly washed away as he reminded himself that it was them that got him into this mess. For the most part. It was enough of their fault to blame them completely for it. 

What he wasn’t aware of was the fact that Rey and Finn were filling Leia in on everything that had happened, all the way down to how rude he was. Leia certainly wasn’t amused, but she wasn’t surprised either. Ben had taken so much after his father that she would often yell Han’s name at him whenever he was in trouble. Considering how unhappy he was with the news that he was going to train with Luke, it was no surprise that his attitude hadn’t improved any. Leia was guarded with a lot of the questions they wanted to ask since she didn’t know them, but she was cordial and more than happy to talk to them about Ben and apologize for his behavior. She even let slip a few embarrassing things about his childhood that they could use as ammunition later if he started getting on their nerves. Before Leia ended the transmission, she asked them to keep an eye on him and to try and convince him to come back home. Rey and Finn both picked up on the fact that she missed him, and they both looked to each other and nodded. Neither of them were going to leave once they reached Corellia. Leia said her thanks and signed off, a little more confident that Ben was in good hands. She would have to meet the two of them in person to get a proper gauge on them, but for now, she was content that Ben wasn’t going to up and get himself killed.

Ben sighed and finally put the lightsaber back in its box before setting it back on his shelf. He didn’t have to worry about this for long. They’d reach Corellia, unload the cargo, and he would leave the two of them and the droid there. Once they were gone he could go literally anywhere else and put all of this behind him. No problem. He’d be all alone again, and that was how he preferred things. Things might have been different if Rey wasn’t so stubborn. Finn seemed interesting if only because there was a part of him that was curious about how the First Order worked. Of course, that part of him was very quickly shut down. He didn’t need to know how the First Order worked. He didn’t care about their tactics or plans, weaponry or ships. He absolutely didn’t care about what their plans were. That was a dangerous line of thinking that would surely send him down the exact road he was trying to avoid. Nope, they would be gone on Corellia, and that was that.


	3. An easy delivery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a little rushed, but I was able to upload on time! Mostly.

With a sigh he stood and left his room, and as he turned the corner he saw the two of them sitting in the cockpit still. Just… Staring at him.   
“What?”  
“Nothing.” Rey and Finn both responded at the same time. BB let out a squeak and bumped into Rey’s leg, who promptly shushed him. Ben’s eyebrow lifted, and he noticed the blinking light on the console was dark. She must have given up. Unlikely, knowing his mother, but he could hope. Oh well, at least something was going right. 

Rey stared at Ben for a few long moments before looking over at Finn. He simply shook his head subtly. They weren’t to mention that they’d talked to Leia. Rey wanted to say something horribly but knew that it wasn’t the time. Before she could say anything at all, a quiet beeping came from the console, and Ben made his way to the pilot’s chair.  
“We’re here.” he said as he pulled the lever in the center of the console. The whirling blue vanished into a streak of stars, which all went still as a planet loomed in front of them. It wasn’t as heavily populated as Coruscant, but he still saw quite a bit of activity on the scopes. Rey’s eyes went wide as she stared at the planet, her mouth dropping open. It looked nothing like Jakku. Ben spared a sideways glance at her, an irritated edge to his voice.  
“What? Never seen another planet before?” he asked sarcastically. Rey’s mouth clamped shut and she shot him a glare.  
“For your information, no. I haven’t.”  
Ben simply stared blankly at her. “Congratulations, or something.” he said, unsure of how to take this new information. Okay, so she was sheltered. Spent her whole life on Jakku. He didn’t really have a frame of reference for that, since his home was literally the Falcon. He travelled everywhere with his mom and dad.

“So…” Finn said, earning a quiet grunt from Ben.   
“What exactly are we doing here? You said you stole First Order cargo? What is it?”  
“No, I said I was transporting stolen cargo. I have no idea what’s in those crates, and I’m not about to look. First rule of smuggling, if someone doesn’t tell you what you’re moving, you don’t ask.” Ben said. Finn raised an eyebrow at that.   
“Thought the first rule would be not to get caught or something.”  
“That’s the fourth rule.”   
Finn blinked slowly at that, but decided not to ask what the other two were.   
“Your dad teach you that?” Finn asked.  
“No, I overheard a pair of Rodians talking about it. Of course my dad taught me that.” Ben responded with a heavy sigh.   
“You know, you’ve got a terrible attitude.”  
“I’ve had a terrible day.”

As the Gauntlet swooped down towards the planet’s surface, Rey paid little attention to the back and forth Ben and Finn were doing. She was far too busy with her eyes fixated out of the viewport, watching as the trees and structures shot by. Her whole life had been dictated by rolling sand dunes and goliath wrecks of metal buried in the earth. Never once did she think she would ever see something like this. BB beeped softly and stuck close to her, but she didn’t seem to notice. Ben did, and he glanced at the droid before looking over at Rey. He could remember the first time he went to Coruscant, he had the same expression on his face.   
“There are better places than this.” he said, turning his eyes back forward. That caught Rey’s attention and she glanced over at him, blinking slowly in surprise.  
“What do you mean?”  
“You should see Coruscant. The whole planet is one big city. Spires that lead nearly to space, and levels of city that stretch so far down it would take you an hour to fall to the planet’s surface.”  
Rey stared at him, wide-eyed. Not because she couldn’t even quantify what Coruscant looked like. No, she was staring because he was being nice. Or at least less of an ass.

“What?” Ben asked. Rey blinked slowly, still staring at him. Ben hadn’t noticed yet, but BB and Finn were staring too.  
“You’re being nice. Are you offering to take me to Coruscant?”   
Ben’s eyes widened, and his cheeks flushed slightly.   
“Absolutely not. All three of you are getting off this ship here, and I’m leaving. You can find someone else to take you. Maybe the Stormtrooper knows how to fly.” he said sharply as he turned his attention back to where they were going. They were heading towards a slum set up in an abandoned shipyard. Rey and Finn were neither one impressed, and they shared a look that Ben missed. It was a look that said they weren’t going anywhere.

The Gauntlet wheeled over an empty landing pad, hydraulics hissing as the landing gear came down. There was a heavy thunk as one of them stuck for a moment, but released and followed the other three to the landing position just before the Gauntlet touched down.  
“You should probably fix that.” Rey said. Ben sighed as the ship came down harder than he was intending for it to.  
“Yeah. I’ll get right on that.” Ben said, setting the engines to cool as he got up and brushed past Finn and BB.   
“If you two wanna be useful, that would be great.” he called back over his shoulder before moving to the smuggling compartments. 

He pulled the grating from the floor, wincing slightly at the weight. He still wasn’t used to heaving the heavy slabs of metal. BB rolled up and stared curiously into the compartment as Finn and Rey made their way over. Neither Ben or Rey recognized the crates, but Finn’s eyes went wide when he saw them. Four small, grey crates, emblazoned with the logo of the First Order.   
“Okay, first, you weren’t joking. That’s stolen First Order stuff.” Finn said.   
“Why would I joke about that?” Ben said, hopping down into the compartment to hoist the first one up. He set it heavily on the deck, causing the metal to echo with the impact. Finn jumped back, shielding his face, causing both Rey and Ben to stare blankly at him. Finn settled down after a moment, glaring at Ben.  
“Second.” he said sharply. “You might wanna be more careful with those. I recognize those crates, they were stolen from a munitions transport a few weeks back.”  
“Okay then, genius, why should I be careful with them?” Ben asked, picking up the next one and setting it down next to the first just as heavily. Finn winced again.   
“Because, idiot, those are full of explosives.”

Ben froze as he picked up the third crate, staring up at Finn as his face paled.   
“They’re what?”  
“Explosives. I said that already. If I remember right, those crates are full of Chepatite.”  
Ben’s jaw dropped, and he came close to dropping the crate in his hands.   
“Chepatite.” Ben said flatly, not sure he heard him correctly.  
“Impact explosive, yeah.” Finn confirmed.  
Rey had been lost during this whole conversation, but as soon as the words ‘impact explosive’ crossed Finn’s lips her eyes widened. She immediately turned on Ben as he gently set the third crate next to the other two.  
“You were hauling explosives?! You don’t think that might have been a problem with the flying you were doing back on Jakku?!” she practically screeched.   
“I didn’t ask what was in the crates!” Ben yelled right back.   
“That doesn’t mean you can put your life and the lives of everyone on board in danger like that!”  
“How was I supposed to know?!” Ben responded.  
“How about we all stop yelling and get this junk off the ship before someone drops a crate?” Finn chimed in. Rey and Ben both stopped immediately, and Ben very gingerly set the last crate next to the other three.   
“That’s a good idea.”  
“Very.” Ben and Rey both said, glancing at each other for a moment before Ben climbed out of the hold.

Ben stared at the crates for a moment. Now that he knew what they were, it was a miracle that they didn’t blow up. He hadn’t even secured them properly, they were probably bouncing around inside the hold the entire time. The thought made him cringe, and he let out a sigh as he picked up the first crate and shoved it into Finn’s arms. Finn blinked, nearly recoiling at the thought.   
“Uh, why?” he said, staring at the crate.   
“You wanted them off the ship, right? Wanna wait for me to make four trips?” he asked, picking up the next. He set it down on top of the current one Finn was holding, causing him to groan.  
“Why two?”  
“You were the one that suggested we get them off the ship immediately.”  
Okay, Finn had no argument for that. He didn’t like it, but he couldn’t argue against it.

Rey walked over and picked up one of the crates herself, and Ben got the last.  
“Who’re these going to?” Finn asked. Ben glanced over at him for a moment before brushing past and heading to the loading ramp.  
“Some IG unit. I didn’t get his designation, but he’s the only one in this slum.” he said, hitting the console with his elbow. The loading ramp lowered, and as they waited Ben turned to the other two.   
“I want to make something perfectly clear. Neither of you are to mention what’s in these crates. I’m not supposed to know, and you’re not supposed to know. Got it?” There was a tone of finality in his voice that both Rey and Finn caught onto.  
“Of course.” Rey answered.  
“Sure.” Finn said. Ben nodded and made his way down the ramp and onto the landing pad. 

The Santhe Slums used to be a bustling shipyard, but now, on the outskirts of Coronet City, it was seen as a blight to the rest of the capital. Towering, half-finished ships loomed everywhere, and most had been turned into ramshackle homes. Primitive windows had been cut out of the metal, doors were built with scrap, and rat’s nests of wires spiderwebbed overhead, providing power to the makeshift homes. It was cluttered, messy, and teeming with exactly the types of people that no sane creature would associate with. Of course, Ben certainly didn’t fit that category, so when he stepped off the landing pad and onto the hard packed dirt he held his head high and walked confidently. BB stuck close to Rey, who certainly didn’t look too bothered by the bustle of creatures walking around. Finn, however, looked like he was trying his absolute best not to be seen. 

Rickety stalls lined the narrow main street, some abandoned, some manned by various creatures selling all sorts of legal and illegal items. A few tried to get Ben and the others to come over, but Ben just waved them off with a shake of his head and kept walking. Fin quickened his pace to walk alongside Ben, his eyes darting around at any sign of movement. Of which there was plenty.   
“How are you not nervous? We’re carrying enough explosives to level this place.” he whispered. Ben glanced over at him before turning his eyes forward.  
“What’s there to be nervous about? If we get in trouble, just throw the crates.”  
“That’s not funny.” Finn snapped in a hushed voice.  
“It’s kind of funny.” Ben said with a smirk.

BB whistled quietly and came close to bumping into Rey’s ankles as she walked, his head rotating in all directions as he looked around. Rubbernecking would be an adequate descriptor, if BB had a neck.  
“It’s fine, just relax.” Rey cooed quietly to BB, who just whistled nervously and kept pace with the others. 

Ben motioned with his head to turn down an improvised side street, and the other two followed suit. Instead of stalls selling illicit goods, the side street was cluttered with trash and discarded crates. There were a few First Order crates there, long-opened and rusting in the humid air.   
“How do you know your way around here? This place is like a maze.” Finn asked, looking up at the towering walls of metal and pipe around them.   
“Been here before. There’s a cantina in the back here that I’m meeting this droid at.” he said.   
“Oh, good to know you like to spend time in seedy cantinas.” Finn said sarcastically. Ben just rolled his eyes. 

The narrow street opened up in front of them to a small clear area, overshadowed by overhanging metal. Their footsteps changed from the quiet sound of dirt to the clang of metal, and it only took Finn a moment to realize that they were inside what was supposed to be a starship hangar. A ramshackle building was placed in the center, and loud music could be heard from inside.   
“That’s it. Follow me and don’t stare.”  
“At what?” Finn and Rey said in unison. There was a short pause.  
“Anything.” Ben said before ducking inside. 

The cantina was packed full. A quartet of Rodians were huddled around a card table, jabbering loudly at each other over who was cheating and who wasn’t. Ben could tell at a glance that all of them were. The bar itself was crowded, with a pair of protocol droids nearly burning out their servos trying to serve everyone. A few people were dancing to the live band, but most seemed to prefer packing into the limited seats to drink and talk or argue. Near the back next to the bar stood a lone droid, tall and black. Its cylindrical head held a number of optics, and as the three of them pushed past a crowd of rowdy patrons, all of its red-hued eyes rotated to lock onto them. It moved, turning to open a door it was standing next to and motioned them inside.

“I was under the impression there was one of you to make the delivery.” it said in its grating, mechanical way. Ben shrugged and paused next to the door, looking up at the droid.  
“Got some local help. I wanted to get this stuff offloaded in one trip.” he explained. Rey and Finn stared at the droid, then at Ben, not saying a word.  
“Understood. Go inside and we will conduct business.” the droid said, waiting for them. Ben nodded and headed inside, where a few similar crates lined the walls. There was a medium-sized metal table in the center of the room, and Ben moved to put the crate down. The IG unit followed them inside and closed the door, muffling the music from the main room. The first thing it noticed was Finn looking around at the other First Order crates.   
“You should keep your eyes forward.” it said to him as it walked past, moving to the other side of the table. Finn wasn’t about to argue and swallowed hard, staring at Ben as he pulled one of the crates from Finn’s arms. Rey and Finn both followed suit and set theirs down next to the other two before stepping back to let Ben handle this. 

“Four crates, as promised.” Ben said, hooking his thumbs into his belt. The IG unit looked at him with one of its eyes, the others scanning the crates. After some quiet beeping it turned its eyes back to the three.   
“Very good. Everything is in order. Where did you find that droid?” it asked, turning to pick up a much smaller box from underneath the table. It slid it to the edge, and Ben stopped it with his hand before it tipped over.   
“Found it on Coruscant. It’s for sale if you want it.” he said, popping the lid open with a finger. A pile of credits were inside, and after a quick glance he saw it was the agreed amount. He was paid half at the beginning of this strange trip.  
“I have no need for a BB unit.” the droid said. “Is the payment satisfactory?”  
“Yep.” Ben said, tucking the box into a pouch on his belt. “Are we done here?” he asked.

Rey and Finn both tensed during the long silence the IG dragged on after that question.   
“Yes. Thank you for your service.” it finally said, and Finn and Rey both let out a quiet sigh. Ben nodded, gave a little bow, and turned to leave, giving a glance to the both of them that was clearly a warning. BB whistled quietly and trundled along after the three of them as they left the back room, giving one last glance to the IG unit. It was staring directly at him. BB let out a worried noise and moved a bit closer to the rest of them. 

“I think I need a drink after that.” Finn said. Rey shared the sentiment, but said nothing.  
“Feel free. I’m getting out of here before that droid’s buddies show up.” Ben said. His pace had quickened a little, but not enough to be obvious.  
“What do you mean, his ‘buddies’?” Rey asked. Ben glanced over at her before stepping around a stumbling Rodian. The alien’s eye had been blacked, probably as a result of cheating at cards.   
“Okay, I wouldn’t expect either of you to really notice what happened back there. That IG sent a transmission signal as soon as it said it didn’t need BB. That little droid is going to cause a lot of problems.” he said, ducking out of the cantina and back down the narrow street.  
Finn felt his stomach drop, and he gave a worried look to Rey.   
“What, they’re looking for him?”  
“Maybe, I’m not about to go back and ask. All I know is it’s not a good thing when an IG sends off a transmission.”  
“Why?” Rey asked, nearly jogging to keep up with him.   
“You really are sheltered, aren’t you? IG units are assassin droids. Old ones, sure, but the ones that are around are still around for a reason. It saw BB, sent a transmission, and my gut’s been doing backflips since. Can we stop talking about useless information and figure out what you two are doing? I’d like to get to my ship and leave as soon as possible.” 

Finn shared another glance with Rey, and came to the brief realization that they’d been doing that a lot recently.   
“Okay, where do you want us to go?” he asked. Ben shrugged.   
“I don’t really care. There’s a spaceport on the other side of Coronet City, you can probably find someone there to transport you wherever you need to go.” Once again, Ben shrugged. He was probably going to be sore from all the not-caring he was doing.  
“Yeah, okay, with what money? You’re the one walking around with all the credits in-” Finn started to say, but was cut off by Ben stopping, whipping around and pointing his index finger at him. There was a glare on his face, a move he’d perfected by watching his father.  
“Don’t talk about that out here.” Ben hissed. Finn was going to ask why, but he realized that with the credits in Ben’s pouch he could probably buy the slums.  
“Right. Sorry. How are we supposed to leave?” he asked, coming to a stop.  
“You could always work on one of the transports. They’re always looking for crew. Stop asking me questions and figure something out.”

BB let off a warning whine that Ben and Finn ignored, but Rey looked down at him with a concerned look on her face.   
“What do you mean, Stormtroopers?”  
Ben and Finn both froze. BB was staring off towards the end of the street. He whistled once, and Ben turned to see a squad of white-armored, First Order troopers turned the corner. They came to a stop at the edge of the street, chatting to each other before one of them pointed out the trio. All of them turned to stare at them, and they were square in between them and the landing pad where the Gauntlet was docked.   
“Friends of yours?” Ben asked sarcastically. Finn was pretty sure his heart was trying to escape through his throat.   
“No idea. Don’t talk to them. Act natural.” he said, though as he started walking it was like he’d forgotten how to. Ben clapped a hand on his shoulder and stopped him, turning him around so his back was to the troopers. Finn didn’t like that in the slightest.

“You say to act natural and then walk like a protocol droid. Calm down, First Order patrols are common in places like this. A small squad like them is enough to keep the slums in check.” Ben said. He was tired of having to explain everything. Rey looked indifferent, but she was the first to notice that all three of them were dressed drastically different than the residents of the slums. Acting natural was going to be difficult.  
“Okay, okay, fine. I’m calm. I’m good, see? No shaking, I’m fine.” Finn repeated, though it was obvious that he was saying it just to try and convince himself.   
“Just walk behind me and calm down.” Ben said with a roll of his eyes, stepping past Finn. He stuck to the opposite side of the street as they drew nearer to the squad, and Ben certainly noticed that they hadn’t stopped staring. This might turn into a problem. His hand shifted slightly, and with a quick movement he undid the retaining strap on his holster. It was a natural movement, and one that neither Finn or Rey picked up on.   
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Finn whispered, and Ben just shushed him. The Stormtroopers followed them, the black visor of their helmets blocking Ben’s view of their eyes. He didn’t need to see them, he knew they were being watched. It felt like it took hours to cross the fifty yards between them and the troopers, and Finn was muttering under his breath while trying to remember how to walk casually. Rey moved in next to him, if only to ease his worry a bit by being a shield.  
As they passed the troopers, there was a static click as one of them spoke, freezing all of them in their tracks. Finn’s heart dropped as soon as the lead trooper spoke.

“FN-2187.” The lead trooper spoke with authority, motioning for him to come over with a single finger.


	4. Nothing could go wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so for this chapter I've taken the story in an entirely different direction. Finn is Force-sensitive and turns to the dark side, kidnaps Rey, and it's up to Ben to rescue her from the evil clutches of Darth Viscera.
> 
> Also, happy April Fool's.

The trio completely froze, all eyes locked on the lead trooper. Ben was the first to move, turning just enough to slowly glance at Finn, who looked… confident? Wait, what? Ben blinked slowly, trying to figure out where the stammering, freaking-out trooper from just a few minutes ago had gone. Rey noticed too, and was just staring at Finn as he gave a subtle wink to Ben and stepped past her and BB.

He walked straight up to the trooper, the others in the squad tightening their grip on their F11-D rifles as he got closer. Finn just smiled, walked straight up to the lead trooper, and grabbed him by his chest armor.  
“C’mere,” he hissed past his smile, dragging the lead trooper off a little ways. Ben’s jaw just dropped, and Rey’s matched. BB just stared in shock.   
“Wait, did he just-”  
“-grab that trooper, yeah,” Ben asked, and Rey answered. They looked at each other for a moment before turning back to see what the hell Finn was planning.

“Are you insane?” Finn hissed at the trooper, who leaned back as far as he could in Finn’s grip.   
“Don’t use my designation out in public!” This was crazy, and Finn knew it. “I’m on a deep cover mission issued by the Captain herself! Why do you think I’m not wandering around in my armor?”  
“Oh, but… Uh…” the trooper stammered, glancing back at his squad.  
“Don’t ‘but’ me, trooper! The only people that are aware of this are the Captain, my crew, and now you. Do you want to be demoted?”  
The trooper just stared at him.  
“Because I can do it. I can demote you. Don’t test me, don’t call out my designation, and don’t look at me. Don’t look at me!”   
The trooper flinched and looked away, and Finn glanced over at Ben and Rey and just grinned.

“We were told that you escaped with a Resistance member. The damage the two of you left behind was considerable,” the trooper said. Finn, shocked that this was actually working, started getting cocky.  
“You’re an idiot, aren’t you? It’s part of my cover! I had to make it look like I deserted the First Order so the people I’m tracking don’t catch on!”   
None of this was adding up to the trooper, and he just barely turned his head to glance at him.   
“What did I say?” Finn growled, shaking him by his armor.   
“It’s just… None of that makes any sense,” the trooper said. Finn felt his stomach start to knot up. There was that bad feeling again.

“It’s not supposed to. What’s your designation? I’m reporting your insolence directly to Phasma herself.” he growled. As entertaining as this was to watch, once the shock wore off, Ben started to notice something. The bustle and noise of the street was dying down.  
“I said, what’s your designation?”  
Whatever few people were left wandering the streets had scurried off, a few hastily grabbing anything they could from nearby stalls before vanishing into the giant steel hulks that passed as housing. Ben felt that feeling start up in the back of his mind. That cold, creeping sensation that told him something horrible was going to happen. 

Rey felt it too. She turned to glance slowly at Ben, giving him a knowing look, while Finn was busy harassing the trooper.   
“Uh… Finn?” Ben asked. Finn ignored him, while the quiet sound of clanking echoed through the now-silent slums.   
“Finn?” he asked again, his hand moving to his blaster. Rey edged a little closer to Ben, staring towards the source of the sound. It was odd, metallic clanking that sounded familiar and alien at the same time. 

“If you ever talk to me again, I’ll have you demoted so far you’ll wish you can leave. Sanitation, maybe? Oh, I’ll have some ideas for what the Captain can do to you,” Finn was loving this feeling of power and was blind to just about everything else. Even the other troopers seemed on edge from the sound.   
“FINN!” Ben and Rey both yelled. Finn jumped, whipping around to stare at them.   
“What?!”  
“Drop!” Ben spat at him. Rey didn’t get a chance to say anything, Ben’s arm was suddenly around her as he pulled her to his chest and turned just as the sound of blaster fire started. 

Searing pain shot through Ben’s back and he let out a low growl in response. That bolt had been meant for Rey, and he knew it the instant he felt that it was going to happen. He instantaneously whipped around, blaster in hand, and with two shots to an upper window the attacker let out a yell and dropped out of view. The pain was blinding him, but he fought through it as another round of blaster fire echoed through the slums. Finn was on the ground the moment Ben yelled at him to drop, and a moment later a bolt struck the trooper he was dressing down. He dropped his rifle with a yell and Finn scrambled for it to return fire. That mechanical clanking was getting closer, and Ben knew they had to leave.

It took Rey several long moments to realize what had happened. One moment she was yelling for Finn, and the next her body was pressed up against something warm, a single strong arm around her. She felt the impact of the bolt, but no pain, and after owlishly blinking she finally realized what was going on. She looked up at Ben, glaring at him as she saw his face twist in pain.   
“Let go of me!” she yelped. Her quickened heartbeat and heat in her face was obviously from the adrenaline of being shot at. Obviously. The other troopers started dropping, and Rey quickly grabbed up one of the blasters to help. 

The blaster fire was coming from several windows, and Ben was good enough to start picking their attackers off as he started back towards the ship.   
“We have to go! Stay in cover!” he yelled, and Finn and Rey both agreed without hesitation, taking cover behind a pile of barrels as blaster fire impacted around them.   
“Are these the droid’s friends?” Finn yelled, blind-firing over the top of the barrels and hitting nothing. Ben was stuck behind some nearby crates, fighting through the pulsing pain in his shoulder.   
“I don’t know! Now shut up and shoot!”

The ones that were firing on them were simply armed slum-dwellers that didn’t like the First Order. Okay, so Ben was wrong about a squad like that keeping things in check. Ben was positive that the ones shooting at him weren’t the ones called by the IG droid, because of that loud, repetitive clanking that kept drawing closer.   
“We should probably go!” Finn yelled as a bolt shot past his head.  
“That’s what I said!” Ben yelled back. The firing stopped almost completely as a few of the assailants yelled and ducked behind cover. Ben fired off a few shots, but when they weren’t returned he paused.   
“Okay, we gotta go now. Right now.” he said, as the source of the clanking came into view. 

A mixed-up amalgamation of metal rolled towards them at a breakneck speed, a blur of red and yellow faded paint only barely visible past the dust it kicked up in its wake. As it rushed forward a pair of legs sprouted from the whirling machine, causing it to skid to a stop and begin to unfold. A second pair of legs appeared as it stood, uncoiling itself. Rusted metal and faded paint in different colors adorned the worn, ancient panels, with a few glimpses of Aurabesh graffiti on the side of the head. It unfolded completely, two arms appearing at its sides, adorned with blasters. There was a flash of blue as a shield formed around it, and a deafening pause as it took aim.

Ben didn’t even have to yell ‘run’.

The three of them took off as the droideka started firing, the bolts causing air-splitting explosions as they connected with metal. The three of them were screaming something to each other, but none of it was heard over the deafening laser blasts. Finn was nearly hit, and BB was thrown into the air as a bolt hit the ground far too close to him. Ben fired off a few shots, which were deflected easily by the shield before grabbing Rey’s hand and running for it. There was no way to fight that thing, the only choice was to get to the Gauntlet and make a run for it.

They rounded a corner and kept pushing, the landing pad in sight.   
“What the hell is that thing?!” Finn yelled as the sound of the deflector shield going down could be heard behind them. It was about to move again.   
“Droideka! Clone War relic!” Ben yelled back.   
“Let go of my hand!” Rey spat at Ben, who ignored him.   
“A what?!” Finn asked, picking up speed until he was next to Ben.   
“Is this really the time for a history lesson?! Shut up and run!”

Rey eventually yanked her hand out of Ben’s, giving him a glare he couldn’t see. She could see the smoldering wound in his shoulder where the bolt had hit him, but now wasn’t the time to point it out. The Gauntlet was close, and the droideka was closing in.   
As the three of them rushed onto the ship, BB hardly made it before the loading ramp started to raise. The droideka had wheeled itself into position and opened up again, letting loose a barrage of fire onto the Gauntlet that rocked the ship.   
“Why the hell is that thing after us?” Finn yelled as he collapsed in the pilot’s seat, and was promptly grabbed by the collar and yanked out of the way by Ben.   
“Damn IG wanted its credits back, probably!” Ben yelled, frantically pulling up the ship’s shields before too much damage could be done. 

With the shields up he lifted off before Rey could get in her seat, and she yelped as she slid to the floor as the Gauntlet nosed skyward. A couple moments passed after Ben hit the accelerator for the laser fire on the shields to dissipate, and before long the blue of the sky faded away to black. Ben let out a long sigh, trying to catch his breath. As his adrenaline faded, pain took over, pulsing and filling his head with fog. Rey stared up at him from the cold metal floor of the ship, her eyes wide.   
“Is this something you deal with on a regular basis?” she asked breathlessly. Finn looked at her for a moment, then to Ben.   
“What she said,” he agreed. 

Ben turned and looked at the two of them for a moment, panting.   
“Yes. Sometimes,” he said. There was a heavy pause.   
“Most of the time.”  
“You mean all the time,” Finn said breathlessly. Ben shot him a glare and sighed, banking the ship and turning it towards open space.   
“You’re hurt,” Rey finally pointed out. Finn had only just now noticed the burnt hole in his jacket and the damaged flesh underneath. He hissed through his teeth as Ben sighed.  
“I know. You’re welcome,” he said. Rey’s face set in confusion and then flushed brightly. He’d taken the shot that was meant for her.   
“You didn’t have to do something that stupid,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Once the ship was locked in place Ben stood, looking at her for a moment.   
“I know,” he said with a sense of finality before stepping past her and heading back towards his room. There was a medkit there that he could use to close up the wound, but it would take time to heal. He wasn’t about to let the other two know how much it actually hurt. He was the one that made the choice to take that shot, though he still didn’t know why he made it. It was instinctual, and that was the only explanation he had.

Rey watched him go before huffing out a little sigh, her arms still firmly crossed over her chest. That man was insufferable! He was rude, ill-tempered, and a general pain to be around. She absolutely, completely hated the fact that he had the sense of mind to take that shot instead of her. He had no right to pull her into his arms like that. It didn’t matter in the slightest that for a split second when he grabbed her, she felt her heart leap into her throat. He didn’t have to risk his own life to save hers! He absolutely didn’t have any right at all to take her hand in his like that! It was far too large and callused and warm for her to derive any sense of enjoyment from it! It was like he thought she couldn’t run on her own. Damn him, she could still feel her palm tingling from that small bit of contact!

“Uh… Your nose is bleeding.”

Finn’s voice snapped her out of the inner turmoil she was facing and she stared up at him, her face even brighter red than before. She wiped at her nose with her sleeve before looking at the streak of red that stained the cloth.  
“You okay?” Finn asked. “Did you get hurt?”  
“No, I’m alright. It’s nothing,” she said quietly, her voice a tad higher than normal. That caused Finn to raise an eyebrow and stare at her for a few long moments while she stared right back. She sniffed and used her sleeve to clean her face off before standing, suddenly unable to look at the ex-stormtrooper.  
“I’m going to see if he needs any assistance, since he was kind-” she paused to correct herself. “Stupid enough to put himself in harm’s way,” she said with an upturned nose, leaving before Finn could ask any questions, of which he had many.

This was idiotic. Ben stared at himself in the small mirror on his shelf for a moment, trying to figure out exactly why he’d done what he did. He hardly knew the girl, and he could hardly stand having her around, so why was his first instinct to pull her out of harm’s way? He sighed and shook his head, pushing aside the brief memory of how she felt in his arms. It was inane and reckless and he honestly couldn’t believe he’d done it. The wound he got wasn’t a fatal one, and as he slowly pulled his jacket off he wondered if he would have done the same if he knew the bolt would go into his spine. He didn’t have an answer to that. He sighed heavily and slowly peeled his shirt off, the cool of the air sending goosebumps across his skin. The shirt fought him as he pulled it away from the wound and he let out a hiss of pain before tossing the shirt on his bed. He liked that jacket too, dammit.  
He turned to inspect the wound, or at least try to. He couldn’t really see it in the mirror, aside from a slight tinge of black across his skin. Of course it would be in an awkward spot. That was his luck. He eventually gave up and turned to the small plasteel chest against the wall and opened it, digging around in it for a moment until he pulled out the medkit he was looking for.

Rey used the short walk to try and cool her face. She really needed to stop thinking about that damn man and what he’d done. She was thankful, yes, but she wasn’t about to thank him for it. It was reckless and inane and-  
As she turned the corner, she froze, the gears that had been rapidly turning in her mind grinding to a halt at the sight in front of her. Of all the things she was expecting to see, it certainly wasn’t this. Her eyes went wide as she stared blankly at him, and it took him a few moments to notice her as he turned. He gave her a flat look, wondering exactly why she was standing there gawking at him when he noticed a trickle of red coming from her nose.   
“Your nose is bleeding,” he pointed out before turning and putting the medkit on his bed.

Rey’s mind suddenly went back into full gear as she looked desperately at anything else that wasn’t him. She wiped at her face again and scowled, staring at a particularly interesting spot of rust on the wall.  
“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?! And why is your door standing open?” she asked, her voice an octave higher than usual. Ben blinked slowly and stared at her, then stared at the door, then back to her.   
“Uh… Because I need to fix this? Also, it’s my ship?” he said questioningly. Why was she acting so damn weird? He ignored the strange shock through his spine at the look she’d given him and turned back to the medkit, digging through it for a moment.

Rey risked a glance, feeling her face heat up again as she did. There were a few other scars that marred his skin, some larger than others, all of them fairly recent. Her eyes slowly dragged along his back, her mind screaming at her to stop, until she finally ended up at the burn mark from the bolt he took for her. She ignored the fact that her stomach flipped and looked away, huffing under her breath. Ben glanced over at her at the sound and rolled his eyes, digging out a bacta spray from the kit. As he moved back to the mirror and tried to see where to use it, she let out an irritated huff and stormed over to him, yanking it out of his hand.

“What the hell are you doing?”  
“You’ll never reach it on your own, turn around,” she said, grabbing his arm and turning him before he had a chance to. He yelped out a curse of complaint that she promptly ignored, putting one hand on his uninjured shoulder to hold him still. She ignored the observation her mind made about how warm he was.  
“Just hold still,” she said, spraying the wound with the blue mist. Ben stared at her in the mirror, noticing how red her face was still. After a few moments of silence while she worked a small smirk pulled at his lips.   
“Never seen a guy shirtless before, huh?” he asked. Her fingers dug into his shoulder as she stopped using the spray, and after a moment’s pause she brought her knuckles up and rapped him on the back of the head. He groaned and scowled at her through the mirror, her eyes meeting his.   
“Be quiet, I need to concentrate.”   
“On what? It’s just a spray.”   
She shushed him and went back to what she was doing. Once the wound was covered she set it down, her hand still on his shoulder.

“This is a ‘thank you’. For being an absolute moron and putting yourself in harm’s way for me,” she said softly. It was as close to an actual apology as she could get, and her cheeks burned worse for it. Ben blinked slowly, staring at her in the mirror. There was a long pause as she pulled out the roll of bandages and started tending to his wound, her soft hand leaving his shoulder. Ben certainly tried not to notice that.  
“You’re welcome,” he said quietly as she worked, and let silence fall between them. It was a comfortable one, for once.

BB chirped at Finn, who was still trying to make sense of what he was hearing in Ben’s quarters.   
“What?” he asked as he looked at the droid. BB chirped again, looking up at the console. Finn followed the droid’s gaze, noticing that three red lights were blinking near the hyperspace controls. He frowned at that, not entirely sure what they meant. Probably that the ship was falling apart, knowing the Gauntlet’s recent history.   
“I’m sure it’s not a big deal, BB.” he said, standing with a small sigh. He’d done way too much running today, and his legs were screaming at him for it. BB chirped again and bumped his leg, pulling a quiet laugh from him.   
“Yeah, I’m gonna go ask.”

Rey finished up with the bandages, and once they were tucked in place she nodded. She was actually fairly proud of her handiwork. She smoothed her hands over the bandages a few times, and Ben promptly ignored the chills he felt from it. Rey didn’t notice the quiet sigh he made at the feeling, though she noticed as he turned around to face her. She silently stared up at him, waiting for him to say something mean, something snarky, something-  
“Thank you,” he said quietly. Rey felt her cheeks heat up as he did completely the opposite of what she was expecting, and just as she stammered out a response the ship suddenly rocked to the side, causing them both to stumble. Ben slammed his shoulder into the shelves, sending a shockwave of pain through him as Rey was thrown into him, and it wasn’t until the pain subsided did he realize his arms were around her again. 

Oh, this was infinitely worse. Rey’s heart was doing backflips as she realized the position they were in, with her palms pressed flat against his bare chest and his arms securely around her. She squeaked quietly and looked up at him, though he was looking around with a concerned look on his face. Before she could say anything, Finn turned the corner holding onto the door frame.   
“Okay, your ship’s officially a-” he started to say, but came to a sudden stop when he saw them. He blinked slowly as Ben stared at him, and Rey turned her head just enough to look at him.   
“Uh, whoops? Sorry, didn’t know you two were busy.”  
“We’re not!” they both said in unison, and Ben let go of her as she pushed away from his chest. Ben ignored the tight feeling in his chest, and simply chalked it up to the bandages being too tight. He grabbed his shirt and stormed past the two of them, pulling it on as he made his way to the cockpit.

Rey stared at him as he left, her face still on fire, while Finn still grinned at her. She pointed a finger at him, daring him to say anything before storming past and following Ben to the front.   
“One of the stabilizers just went offline. Probably from that droideka,” he said, cursing under his breath. Rey took her place in the copilot’s seat, trying to force her face to be any other color but red.  
“Okay, so what does that mean?” Finn asked.  
“It means we need to dock somewhere soon or I won’t have any control. I really don’t think we want to hurtle off into an asteroid or something,” Ben said, diverting power. After a few moments the lights dimmed, but the ship stopped moving like it was. 

“I know a guy nearby, he’s got a small station that we can dock at. If we can limp it there,” Ben said, checking one of the readouts on the console.   
“I don’t like how you said ‘if’,” Finn said.   
“It’s better than saying ‘when we hurtle into a nearby planet’,” Ben retorted. The ship seemed stable for now, at least. Unlike Rey’s mind. She was reeling, trying to think of literally anything other than the position they just found themselves in. Ben was better at hiding it, and after a few quick calculations the ship turned and picked up speed.  
“We’ll be there in about an hour,” Ben said. He just hoped that Davarl didn’t remember that little ‘issue’ they had a few months back.

With a sigh he leaned back in his chair, wincing as he pushed down on the wound. He’d have to stop doing that. Rey noticed, and made absolutely damn sure that she didn’t say a word about it.   
“So, where are we going exactly?” Finn asked. Ben glanced over at him, before turning his chair to face him.   
“Davarl Koraay’s place. He runs a junk station. Mostly does some trade, but he also outfits ships for smugglers and such. He’s a wry old Correllian, the bastard. He did some work on the Gauntlet. At least until he found out I couldn’t pay him,” Ben said with a little shrug. Rey and Finn both stared blankly at him.   
“Okay, so you… paid him? A little?” Finn asked.   
“Not a single credit. He got the Gauntlet running and safe-” Rey glared at him. “Safe-ish, and I bolted without paying him. He may be a little mad at me over that one,” he said.   
“‘May’?! You’re flying us into some smuggler’s den towards a man you stiffed on payment?” Rey asked, glaring at him.   
“It’s not a smuggler’s den! It’s a workshop. It’ll be fine. The two of you are so high-strung, you need to start learning how to relax. It won’t be a problem.”

Finn couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He wasn’t used to someone being so nonchalant about walking into yet another potential firefight.   
“Considering today’s track record I can’t say I exactly believe that,” he said. Ben just shrugged and leaned back, avoiding the burn as he did.   
“Think what you want. I’ve got a good feeling about this.”   
“Well, I don’t,” Rey snapped.

The trip lasted longer than an hour, due to another stabilizer failing, which caused a massive panic attack through the crew. Ben managed to get it under control as they entered what looked like a ship graveyard floating in open space.   
“Well, this looks familiar. Kinda like the slums we just left,” Finn said. Ben rolled his eyes, taking manual control of the ship as he maneuvered it around the hulking wreck of an old Corellian Corvette.   
“Well, we don’t have to worry about getting shot here,” Ben said. As the Gauntlet cleared a massive floating engine, a small, circular station came into view. It was built out of the side of some unidentifiable wreck, with lights leading them straight to the landing bays. The comms channel was clear, which was strange, but Ben took it as a blessing. He wasn’t about to let Davarl know he was there until the ship was docked. 

The Gauntlet passed through the shimmering blue force-field and into an empty space in the hangar. The hangar was all but empty, save for some monstrosity that looked like it was being built out of parts from both a TIE and an X-wing. Finn pushed away the obvious disgust at the sight, and ignored the tight feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. There was no movement inside the hangar. No droids, no people, nothing. Either it was abandoned, which would be fine… Or it wasn’t, and most certainly wouldn’t be fine.

The Gauntlet landed roughly, and as it settled Ben took a moment to look through the viewport.   
“Huh. Wonder if he’s not home,” he said. Finn stared at him for a moment, but diidn’t say anything. Ben shrugged it off and left the cockpit, with Finn and Rey trailing behind. BB started to come to but Ben turned, pointing at him.   
“You stay here, unless you want to get turned into spare parts. Davarl tends to do that with his droids,” he said. BB whined quietly and backed up, before rolling back into the cockpit without a fuss.   
“Does he really?” Rey asked. Ben nodded.   
“Yeah. People too, sometimes,” he said, looking over at her with a vaguely malicious grin. Rey wasn’t amused, and she wasn’t shy about showing it on her face. 

The three made their way to the loading ramp, and after a few short presses on the console it started to open. The hydraulics hissed, and Ben felt a wave of danger pass through him. Even before the ramp lowered halfway he lifted his arms and put his hands on his head. Rey and Finn looked at him curiously as the ramp lowered the rest of the way, but before they could ask what he was doing a raspy voice caught their attention.

“Gotta big ‘ol pair’a bantha balls on ya, don’t ya son?”

Ben just grinned as Rey and Finn turned and slowly matched Ben’s movements, placing their hands on their heads.   
A short, stocky human stood there, rifle in hand and trained on them. His greasy coveralls barely fit over his bulging belly, one leg cut off to reveal a cybernetic replacement. His eyes were covered with goggles, and his bushy, gray beard was caked with grease and only barely hiding a furious scowl. His fingers tightened on the E-11 he was holding, raising it to train it on Ben.  
“Run out on mah work, ya must have’a death wish comin’ back.”  
“Hello to you too, Davarl,” Ben said calmly. As calmly as he could staring down the barrel of a blaster.


	5. Peace and quiet?  What's that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uploaded a little later than I was intending. It's not because I just wrote the whole thing out today or anything. Really. >.>  
> (note to self: get better at allocating time to write)

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Finn said through his teeth, and Ben just glanced at him.  
“It’s fine,” he hissed back. Davarl’s hands gripped a little tighter on the rifle.  
“No, not gonna be fine,” Davarl sneered. His hearing was better than Ben remembered it being.  
“Did you get new hearing implants, Davarl? Working out okay?”  
“Never you mind ‘bout what implants I got, ya little pecker!” Davarl spat, and Ben, being the mature adult he was, held back a snerk. 

“C’mon, I don’t want to get shot again today. I can pay you for what I ran out on, and I need your help getting this pile back up and running.”  
“You probably deserved gettin’ shot,” Davarl sneered. Rey nodded and fought back the heat that rose to her face.  
“Yeah, maybe I did, but that doesn’t mean I want to get shot again. Here-” Ben said as he lowered his hand to the pouch on his belt. Davarl’s hands tensed on the E-11, and Ben slowed his movements until he was able to pull out the box of credits. He set them on the loading ramp and kicked them down, and Davarl’s eyes followed the box as it slid to his feet. 

Before he could pick it up, his attention was pulled away by the sound of a blaster clearing a holster, and Davarl’s head snapped up to see Ben leveling his weapon at him.  
“You wry little-”  
“I don’t like having blasters pointed at me. I’ve had enough of that today. The credits are there, enough to cover my debt and pay for repairs, but I’ll have to ask you kindly to lower your rifle,” Ben said calmly as Finn and Rey just stared at him, wondering why he insisted on risking getting shot all the time.

Davarl stared at him, and Ben stared right back, neither man lowering their weapons. Davarl started to chuckle which slowly turned into an honest laugh, and as his rifle started to lower, Ben started chuckling and lowering his blaster. Finn let out a sigh of relief and started to drop his hands, until Davarl’s blaster snapped back up and Ben’s followed suit. The laughing stopped and Finn just stared, his hands up as, for a moment at least, it seemed that one or the other of the two of them was going to pull the trigger. 

The tense moment lasted for what seemed like an eternity before Davarl lowered his rifle, and Ben holstered his own.  
“Don’t run off on payment like that again, ya ass,” Davarl growled as he picked up the box.  
“I can confirm that he is, in fact, an ass,” Rey said as she lowered her hands with a heavy sigh. Ben gave her a look and she just glared at him, and as soon as he looked away she stuck her tongue out at him defiantly.

Davarl checked the box and nodded with a pleased grunt. “Yeah, this’ll do just fine. Get yer asses off the ship so I can work on this pile,” he growled, though it lacked the anger that was underlying his previous words. Ben sighed and nodded, taking a few steps down the loading ramp before turning to look at the other two with a triumphant grin. Neither of them looked impressed, and looked at each other with an exasperated look as Ben turned around. 

That had gone better than he was expecting it to, and Ben was just glad that he could fake his way through that whole thing. He knew Davarl would have gotten a shot off before he could, but the others didn’t need to know that. At least he seemed pleased by the credits, if the way he stomped up the loading ramp was any indication. Ben let out a little sigh and tucked his thumbs into his belt as he looked around the hangar, his eyes landing on the strange ship at the very end. It had been there the last time he was here, and it didn’t look like Davarl had made any progress on it. Who would even think it was a good idea to attach x-wing flight gear to a TIE cockpit anyway? He shook his head and sighed as Finn and Rey came over, Rey looking none too pleased. 

“So… You mean to tell me that you’re willing to throw away your credits when I’ve offered to help fix your ship?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest. She wasn’t sure why it irritated her as much as it did, but she obviously blamed Ben for it. Ben raised an eyebrow, looking over at her as he folded his arms over his chest to match.  
“Uh… Yeah? Look, I know you got lucky on Jakku, and I really don’t like the idea of a stranger being shoulder-deep in my ship again after the last time,” he said with a shrug. Rey felt a surge of anger, her face going red for a much different reason than before.  
“Oh, and he’s not a stranger?” she asked, jabbing a finger towards the ship as BB let out a squeal and came tearing down the loading ramp towards them. Davarl poked his head around to stare at them, a confused look hiding halfway behind his beard before he grunted and disappeared again.  
“He’s not, no. I’ve met him once before.”  
Rey could feel her blood pressure rising as she stared at him, and Finn was about to say something when she turned on her heel and just stormed off.

“C’mon, you don’t need to treat her like that,” Finn said with an exasperated sigh. He could tell already that he’d have to mediate for the two of them constantly at this point.  
“Like what? I don’t want her digging around in my ship,” he said. Not only because that first time nearly gave him a heart attack, but there were things that he didn’t want her to find. Like the nearly-forgotten weapon on his shelf.  
“Give her some slack, getting her angry like that all the time isn’t going to help things.”  
“Yeah… But it’s kinda funny watching her turn red like that,” Ben said with a smirk. Finn sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.  
“She’s gonna haul off and hit you one of these days, you know that, right?” he asked. Ben just shrugged.  
“Wouldn’t be the first time. We’ve got some time to kill, you know how to play Sabacc?” he asked before turning to walk deeper into Davarl’s odd little workshop.

Rey was fuming, and she stormed right back onto the ship without thinking. What an ass! She proved that she knew how to fix his damn ship in the first ten minutes they knew each other, and that wasn’t enough for him? She stormed right past a very confused Davarl and into the cargo bay before stomping her foot and letting out a muted scream of frustration. The noise certainly wasn’t going to help with Davarl’s concentration, and he got up from looking at the diagnostic screen and headed into the cargo bay to see her standing there trembling. 

This wasn’t something that he’d ever had to deal with before, so he just quietly cleared his throat to get her attention. It did, and she whipped around at him and shot him a glare that made him take a step back.  
“Easy, girl. I ain’t gonna do nothin’,” Davarl said. Rey stared at him for a long while before letting out a long sigh of irritation.  
“I apologize, I’m not angry with you,” she said quietly.  
“Oh? With Ben, then. Don’t be too hard on yourself, the boy’s got as much sense as a pile’a Rancor shit. He’s got some special power to just piss everyone off,” Davarl said with a shrug before turning to glance at the diagnostic screen. Nothing but red. Rey blinked owlishly at him before stifling a giggle.  
“Yes, he does,” she agreed.  
“What got ya up in such a knot?” he asked, before opening a panel to look at the rat’s nest of wiring behind it. He didn’t even try to hide the retching noise he made.  
“He thinks that I’m incapable of even comprehending the finer points of ship maintenance,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

Davarl stared at her for a moment before letting off with a derisive grunt.  
“Like I said, boy’s ain’t got no sense. I’ve known plenty of women mechanics that could run circles ‘round me any day.”  
Rey was more than a little surprised that Davarl was so… supportive. “Especially considering that I’ve done nothing with my entire life aside from scrapping and fixing ships on Jakku. I literally lived inside of an Imperial walker,” she said as she moved over to a small set of crates and sat down. Davarl looked at her again before turning to inspect the mess of wires in front of him.  
“Jakku, huh? Always wanted ta go there. Tons ‘o ships for the takin’. I’da taken one’a those Imperial Star Destroyers, fixed it up, made a mobile business outta it. Why’d ya leave?”

Of all the ways Rey was thinking this conversation was going to go, this certainly wasn’t it. She wasn’t about to complain, though, aside from Finn, Davarl was the most pleasant conversation she’d had in a long time.  
“I caught a ride with Ben completely against my will. We were being chased by the First Order, and he refused to turn around and drop me off before we went on this inane trip.”  
“Pity, coulda found some good parts for this pile on Jakku.” Davarl grunted as he pulled out a circuit board and stared at it before pulling the wires loose.  
“That’s what I was trying to tell him. I’ve literally restored a ship identical to this one to working order before. He just won’t listen, and he insists on making me angry every chance he gets.”

Davarl glanced at her again before pulling the board out completely and reconnecting the wires. A small chunk of the diagnostic screen went green and vanished, but there was still a lot left to do.  
“Well, he ain’t here, is he?” he asked as he put the panel back on and moved to the next one. Rey blinked and stared at him wide-eyed for a moment.  
“What do you mean?”  
“I mean I don’t keep a close eye on my tools, and I can’t exactly stop ya if ya wanted to lend me a hand,” Davarl said. Rey could have sworn she caught the slightest glimpse of a smirk hiding under his beard. She couldn’t help but grin too, a wholly innocent look on her face as she hopped to her feet and clasped her hands behind her back.  
“Oh, I just couldn’t. After all, it would make Ben furious,” she said as she casually strolled over towards Davarl and peeked around him at the diagnostic screen.  
“That it would,” Davarl agreed with an approving grin.

Several hours passed, with Finn and Ben both finding suitably comfortable places to sleep. Well, comfortable was a subjective term. Ben was leaning against some boxes on the cold metal floor, arms crossed over his chest as he slept. Finn had found an unused workbench and was sprawled across it, snoring loud enough that BB was staring at him, letting out confused and concerned chirps occasionally. Rey, however, wasn’t tired in the slightest. Her bad mood was a faint memory now, a quiet song being hummed under her breath as she worked on everything wrong she could find. Her hands were black, covered in grease, and she couldn’t be happier. She chatted here and there with Davarl, mostly talking about how it was a miracle that the ship even took off. There was so much wrong with it, and every time she solved an issue, two more would pop up. 

She decided to take a short break and wandered into Ben’s room, taking a moment to just look around. Maybe she’d get some sort of idea as to why he was always so bitter around everyone. There wasn’t much, just a few trinkets here and there of his adventures. There was an odd-looking coin that she picked up, it was much heavier than it looked and inscribed with some kind of writing she couldn’t make out. Next to it was a strange cube, translucent with gold detailing. She felt strange about that and decided not to touch it, though as her hand got close the interior started to faintly glow. It was strange, but she left it alone for the moment. 

Instead, her attention was pulled to an innocuous, small metal box. It seemed plain, but as she looked at it she felt drawn to it. Her hand reached up and pulled it to the edge of the shelf, leaving black streaks on the box. She hastily wiped her hands off on her clothes, not caring about leaving a mess. She would need a change of clothing soon at some point. Once her hands were mostly clean she took the box again and opened it. Inside was something she hadn’t seen before. It was cylindrical, with long parallel lines running along the length. She could see a button, and she knew that there was no way that it was a part to his ship. There was something familiar about it, and the draw she felt to it in her chest was undeniable. 

Ben finally woke, stiff and sore from sleeping on the ground. He yawned hugely and stretched, wincing as his back popped and the bandages shifted. The bacta was doing a good job, but the wound wasn’t healed yet. He sighed, feeling parched, and got up to see Finn still knocked out completely and sprawled over the workbench. He shook his head and sighed before turning towards his ship. Davarl was working underneath it now, his eyes covered by his goggles as he worked on fixing the landing gear. Ben would have asked how the repairs were going, but he didn’t want to interrupt him. He would just get some water and maybe get into his rations, then try and go back to sleep. He didn’t know where Rey was, and honestly didn’t care. Yes, she was kind of cute, but she had such a horrible attitude towards him that it negated anything he might have felt. 

Rey’s hand was trembling for a reason she couldn’t understand as she reached into the box and pulled out the odd weapon. It was lighter than it looked, and she felt a thrum of energy slide through her body as she held it. Her fingers ran along the cool metal for a moment before she felt something odd. With a gentle touch she pushed a small panel to the side, revealing a bright blue crystal. It was glowing softly and her eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat. She was completely deaf to the sound of footsteps coming up the loading ramp as she slid the panel closed, her eyes catching on the small, recessed button. Her thumb moved along the metal to rest over it, the urge to press it almost unbearable.

The sound of footsteps quickened, and it caught her attention just in time for her to feel a calloused, familiar hand clamp over hers. She stumbled as Ben tried to pull the saber out of her grasp, her eyes going wide as she found herself against his chest again. His face was red, anger and something else behind his eyes as he glared at her.  
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked behind gritted teeth. She blinked slowly before the look on her face turned sour.  
“Trying to clean your room, what does it look like?” she asked sarcastically. Ben growled under his breath and stepped towards her, pushing her back until he had her pinned against the wall. Rey ignored the stammering in her chest, but couldn’t hide the color that came to her cheeks as a cold chill slid through her. 

“You don’t go through my things. Ever. Especially not this,” he said, yanking it from her hand. He didn’t move, and she just stared up at him defiantly as she felt that chill run through her again.  
“Why? What is that thing, anyway? Why does it have a crystal inside of it?” she asked. Ben felt his anger surge, and his grip tightened on the saber.  
“That’s not important. You need to learn not to go through other people’s things,” he growled.  
“It is important if you’re so intent on hiding it.”  
“I’m hiding a lot of things, and you and that ex-stormtrooper seem quite good at bringing all of them to the surface. I can’t say I appreciate that,” he said sharply.  
“You seem absolutely intent on pushing everyone away. Why? What good does it do you?” she asked, her tone just as sharp. She didn’t need to mention that she did exactly that on Jakku.  
“Because I didn’t want either of you on my ship in the first place! I’m not here to make friends!”  
“Well, maybe if you had some you wouldn’t be such a sour bastard!” Rey spat, shoving at him. He took a step back and she slipped around him, but before she could storm out he grabbed her arm.  
“Don’t ever go through my ship again,” he hissed. She yanked her arm from his grip and stepped out into the hall, a defiant smirk on her face.  
“Too late. Davarl’s just doing the finishing work, guess who fixed most of your ship?” she said before turning on her heel and storming off. Ben felt a surge of anger and he stuck his head out of his door, intent on getting the last word.  
“I should just leave you here!” he yelled. She spun around and stuck her tongue out at him.  
“Well, that worked so well on Corellia, didn’t it?” she called back, and with that she was gone. Ben growled under his breath and slammed the lightsaber back in its box. As he shut it he saw the long streaks of black staining the metal and let out a curse under his breath. 

As irritated as she was, Rey felt oddly accomplished. As she came down the loading ramp, Davarl had stopped working and was staring at her curiously. She just shrugged and grinned, and he returned it with a smirk of his own before going back to what he was doing. He was right, Ben was pissed. Served him right for the way he treated them. She was feeling smug about it, but at the same time she felt an odd hint of concern. Why was he trying to hide from the universe like he was? It couldn’t have just been because of who his parents were, and the fact that he obviously didn’t want to follow their path. There was something else that she couldn’t put her finger on, and she was cursed to be a curious creature by nature.

Of course, that curiosity was going to get her into trouble. Trouble she could handle, especially from Ben. He talked a big game, but was essentially harmless so far. He didn’t even grab her roughly when he wrestled that strange device from her hand. He was only a little rough with her when he pushed her against the wall, and the thought sent that same little chill through her that she hated and loved at the same time. She pushed the thoughts out of her mind that were threatening to creep in, not needing to be distracted by something like that. It was surprisingly easy to do as she caught motion outside of the forcefield that pulled her attention away. It was another ship, and as she looked at it she could feel her stomach start to twist. 

The ship caught Davarl’s attention as it passed through the forcefield. It was a YT-1930 covered in mercenary regalia, one he didn’t recognize, and he set his equipment down and immediately went for the E-11 as it touched down. The sound of the roaring engines woke Finn, who panicked and fell off of the workbench and nearly landed on BB, who just barely rolled out of the way in time.  
“Friends of yours?” Rey asked Davarl, who was making his way out from under the ship with his rifle in hand.  
“No,” he said gruffly as the ship settled and the loading ramp lowered. Ben had moved to the Gauntlet’s ramp, staring at the ship as a familiar droid stepped down the ramp, blasters in both hands. The IG droid.

“Ben Solo,” it called out, its eyes landing on him. “We are here for my credits, that BB unit, and you.”  
Ben growled under his breath, his hand coming to rest on the blaster.  
“What, realized that droideka you sent wasn’t enough?” he asked. This day just kept getting better and better.  
“I did not send a droideka,” the IG unit asked as several other mercenaries started making their way out of the ship, each heavily armed. Ben glared at the droid, then to Davarl who gave an odd, withering sort of laugh.  
“Saw your ship’s log, that droideka you ran into was mine. Sorry ‘bout that.”

“That was what?” Ben asked, glaring at Davarl.  
“Yeah, sold it to the local constabulary after I fixed it. Apparently that’s why there ain’t no constabulary anymore. It probably targeted ya because you were shooting.”  
Ben’s jaw dropped as he stared at him. Of course that was his luck. His gaping was interrupted by the IG, who spoke again.  
“You have one minute to surrender before we take what we want by force.”  
Thirty mercenaries had left the ship and were starting to spread out, eyes locked on the three of them. 

Finn was hiding behind a pile of crates, watching for a moment before scrambling to find something he could shoot with. This was going to turn bad, and he knew it. Luckily, Davarl didn’t seem careful about locking up any weapons, and there was one that caught his eye in particular. It was a huge blaster on a tripod, with an external battery hooked to it by a cable. It looked like an Imperial weapon, and he just hoped it would work. 

“I’ve got another blaster in that crate there, girl,” Davarl grunted under his breath, motioning with his head to a crate nearby. She didn’t need a second offer and slowly started making her way towards it, not taking her eyes off of the mercenaries or the IG. Ben just stared at the IG and his crew, and Rey stopped in her tracks as he just started laughing.  
It wasn’t a joyful laugh, or even a derisive one. He was just… laughing. The IG’s head tilted slightly as the mercenaries glanced at each other, a brief feeling of dread flowing through them.

“Your timing is absolutely perfect. Not only will I not give you what you want, you’ve got one minute to get the hell out of here before I lose my temper,” he said, turning and vanishing into the Gauntlet. Laughter echoed through the crowd, and was punctuated by the sounds of their blasters charging. Ben returned a moment later, and Rey recognized the strange device in his left hand. His right hand drew the blaster from its holster, and he started walking down the ramp with a confidence that Rey wasn’t expecting from him in this situation. He always seemed content to run, not stay and fight.

“I’ve already had a bad enough day, and I doubt that you morons are going to make it worse. Get out of here. Or don’t. I wouldn’t mind taking my frustrations out on the likes of you,” he called out. There was a bright flash of blue light as the device ignited, instantly forming an energy blade that crackled and hummed loudly in the silence that followed. The blade seemed to shift and pulse, almost mimicking the roiling emotions inside of its owner. The only sound in the hangar was the loud hum, the light from the blade illuminating a wide grin on Ben’s face.  
“Jedi,” the IG spoke, breaking the silence as it raised its blaster. Ben charged at them in response, lightsaber raised.


	6. Update on the story.

So, I have some pretty bad news. The next update is going to be delayed for a while. A storm came through and knocked a tree over on top of my satellite (I live in the boonies and have to deal with satellite internet) so I'm going to be without a connection for the foreseeable future. I am, however, continuing to write, so there will probably be a few updates in rapid succession when I can get back online. I'm hoping for it to only take a week or two, but due to the current events going on right now, there's no telling how long it's going to take for a technician to get out and fix it, not to mention how much time it's going to take to chop up a 35' tall oak tree with an electric chainsaw. >.< Stay tuned, the story's not over, not by a long shot. After all, Ben needs to be tormented more.


End file.
